M31 19-Oct-2011

[cgarry]

Having just received a new field flattener for my ZS80FD I wanted to take an image showing it working and M31 seemed like the ideal target as I had already had a go at it without a flattener. The sky was very clear for a change, but with a bright moon rising at midnight I needed to get everything set up and running quite quickly to maximise the available exposure time. As I seem to have spend endless time lately getting various bits of imaging kit to work correctly but not actually producing any images I thought I would make an effort to process this data into a final image.

Probably as a result of being slightly rushed I made a couple of errors during the imaging. Firstly, I did not offset the RA axis balance enough and combined with a 9mph gusty wind this caused the stars to be slightly tear shaped. Secondly I did not lock the focus after focusing with the bahtinov mask, which I think allowed the weight of the imaging kit to pull the crayford focuser out very slightly as the scope became more vertical. Oh well, mistakes are bound to happen, I still consider myself a beginner at this!

Equipment:

NEQ6 mount

William Optics ZS80FD scope

Teleskop Service TSFLAT2 flattener

Brightstar Astro OAG

QHY5 guide cam

QHY8L imaging cam

Software:

PHD Guiding

Astroart 5.0 for calibration and stacking

Pixinsight for processing

After ditching a few subs that were ruined by a small cloud bank passing over, I was left with the following:

35 x 300s lights

35 x 300s darks

35 x 250ms flats

35 x 250ms dark flats

I tried to keep all the DSO processing comments and tips I have received in mind during the processing, but I still found M31 a really hard target to process even with the low levels of noise in the data.

Anyway finally, here is the image:

M31 19-Oct-2011

Cheers,

Chris

[Looking Up]

Given your slight problems with gusts and focus, I think you have a very good image! When you get used to all your new kit I expect some cracking images!

[MartinB]

Terrific M31 Chris, the dust lanes look great.

[cgarry]

Thanks for the comments guys. There is quite a learning curve to this imaging game, but it is fun nevertheless.

Cheers,

Chris

[CelestialHaz]

Fantastic image! I love the M31 everytime I look at images of it...still amazes me at just how big an object it is in reality! Nice work!