First ever DSO M31

[pixueto]

Dear all,

This is my first attempt at imaging a DSO. I went for M31. 1 hour and 7 mins at 30’’ and 60’’ subs, 3 darks and 3 bias. All that unguided from my backyard in light polluted SE London using a Canon 350D and an 8’’ Skywatcher reflector (f5) on an EQ5 mount and a Canon 350D. No drift alignment; only a good polar one.

If I only positioned the camera in the right place I might have been able to frame the whole galaxy but…. As I said, this is my first go at a DSO. Any comments welcomed as I am sure the picture is far from perfect!

Thank you all in this forum for your continued support.

[Zul]

Nice one!

[JimStan]

Well, you could have a go at eliminating that vignetting, by taking "dark" frames. And seeing if you can recover a bit more of the detail in the hub of the galaxy would be a worthy effort.

But you have done a fine job there, overall, and when you start picking up some of the more advanced techniques, you are going to have some fantastic images, there !

Jim S.

[Sparrow]

Actually it's flats you need to take to remove the vignetting (uneven illumination - that will help to bring out the galaxy a bit more.

Regards

John

[pixueto]

Thank you very much for giving up your time to help me with this. I haven't tried any flats yet; that will be the next thing then. I'm not sure if the problem is vigneting or a bad use of layers. I remember using a mask with a gradient. Maybe that's the cause of the uneven illumination.

[prokyon]

I am sure, that is vignetting. Making flats will help, and you will wonder how much!

[Chris]

cracking first image!

[Coco]

First ever !!!

I'll keep an eye out on you... crikey...

[SlipperySquid]

Though I bright object, M31 is a notoriuosly hard image to process. Great first attempt but if you have not had at least 30 goes at reprocessing the image you are doing some thing wrong

Reading as much as you can on processing will improve your skills no end, there's a myriad of articles out on the net and a fair few here to including videos for those like myself that hate the thought of tramping through pages and pages of information that flies straight over my head!

Look forward to seeing with what you can come up with!

Clear skies mate,

Matt.

[Beyond_Vision]

Thats a very good first attempt with the dust lanes showing up well. You have good polar alignment as there is no trailing. It would be worth investing in a light pollution filter such as the Astronomik clip filter or the Hutech equivalent and looking into taking flats to counter the vignetting.

A very good start

Regards

Kevin