Widefield - Andromeda and Plaiedes

[blinky]

Was out last night with a few folks from ScottishAstronomers at Herperig Resrvoir near Edinburgh. What a great night, good company, nice scopes and a cracking clear sky!

Took a few widefield images but most have too much star trails, thought this one was pretty good though!

Feel free to have a play, I have the TIF that I can send. Is there a way to get rid of the hot pixels and the star trails? I know I can take darks and mount the cam on the scope but wondered if anything can be done with this image?

[dogfish]

Hi Craig

Nice one! Takes me right back.

Martin

[G1ZmO]

Nice one Craig,

Yes, it was a good night albeit a little damp at times but the sky was nice and clear and I saw a few DSOs that I hadnt seen before. I'll put a link to the reports here once I have them in.

It was good to see a variety of scopes too. I'll put the group photo on the webpage when I get it from Gary.

A good night was had by all.

If anyone else wants to join us please get in touch: info AT scottishastronomers dot com

Cheers

[garymcgrory]

great image Craig, mars and pleiades looks lush, sorry I'm no use to you on your technical questions I'm a dobber don't you know

Great night and have sent the group picture to Paul so it's worth a look in a car crash kind of way!

Gary

[Albireo380]

Nice image Craig, crisp and clear. I wouldn't have thought you could get such unpolluted skies so near to Edinburgh. If you have Photoshop, you can get rid of hot pixels by using the "healing tool". You might also try taking a bias frame (1/4000 sec shot with the lens cap on)-it should remove those pixels that are permanently ON.

The only software I am aware of that deals with star trails is the package that Bev from COAA has developed. It apparantly allows you to set a camera on a fixed tripod, take star trail images and then stack them back to a single combined image - not sure exactly how it works, or how well. It might be worth giving him a buzz and having a chat.

Tom

[Andrew*]

sorry i couldn't join you guys, but it looks like you had fun. Just far too far to go.

Glad you enjoyed yourselves

Andrew