First M31 at last!

[badgerchap]

Finally had a chance to snap the girl next door, and whilst this is clearly a rookie attempt, I'm still bloomin' pleased!

Focus could definitely do with some work, and my Canon is unmodded, which I think will have to change, but I definitely seem to be getting somewhere. Exposure was (according to my exif) >1000s, but I swear it was 5 mins. ISO 1600 through a WO66 Petzval with an EOS 10D. I think I might have got a better result with double the (guided) exposure and half the ISO, but will have to wait until I have more kit to try that!

Please comment - I need help (and not just the psychological type)!

[Spikey]

Well done on bagging it, much better than my first attempt at M31.

Modding the Canon only increases red sensitivity which won't do a massive amount for your pic. In fact for any beginner I would say don't mod the camera until you've a fair bit of experience in processing the images. The increase in the red channel and the additional noise it brings with it can make processing trickier.

You do have a bit of star trailing so a shorter sub time would probably help (3 mins) and I'd be going for an 800 ISO with that target as it's pretty bright. Upping the ISO increases the noise.

[badgerchap]

Thanks for the advice - and also for not pointing out that this is M31, not M32 as my title suggests. Although that is in the picture too, I could have intended it this way.....lol

[Spikey]

I've saved your blushes and edited the title for you

[Gina]

Good first attempt I agree with the comments above. Reduce the exposure time and ISO. You can make up for the reduced signal by taking more subs to stack. I suggest 2m subs at ISO 800. Plus a couple of dozen darks at the same setting. Lights will get rid of vignetting and dust bunnies. Biases only really help at very high ISO I've found. You didn't mrntion if you'd taken and stacked darks etc.

[badgerchap]

No darks no flats, just a single exposure. To be honest I mainly wanted to make sure my modest set up was capable before I go out again and go for the full set with many subs. If I take a large number of subs, will I get greater detail?

[badgerchap]

Thanks Spikey!

[Alastair Rae]

Looks great for a single exposure. Well done.

[andyo]

great first of M31 well done

[JamesF]

You won't get more detail if you take more subs, but you'll reduce the random noise so that the detail you do have is clearer.

James

[badgerchap]

So...more detail will require a larger aperture? Does this mean I have an excuse to upgrade to...oh I don't know, picking something at random...a William Optics Megrez 90?

[JamesF]

Not exactly. Faster f ratio is one way to go, but longer exposures is probably the wallet-sensitive way to go about it

James

[laser_jock99]

Good first attempt- was this a guided shot? I think my biggest leap forward in astro-imaging came when I sorted out an autoguider in the summer. That gave me the abillity to take really long single subs (>10mins) and still have pin point stars. Trailing seems to be the killer of detail. Lower ISO's and longer subs might be the way forward. You can stack umpteen hours of subs together but at the moment I'm still experimenting with single subs and getting okay results.

[badgerchap]

No, no guiding yet - that's next year's little improvement! Yes, I know what you mean about single subs - I think I want to nail down the actual taking of the image before I start learning to process - a few early attempts have gone rather wrong! Although I do now have a copy of PS CS6, which I am (hopefully) fairly au fait with

[astrosathya]

By the looks of it, you will need to first sort out the tracking. Guiding will come later. Drift align your mount, its worth the pain. Then bracket your exposure time. That is take a few exposures of different time settings until you find the longest duration you can obtain without any visible trailing. It helps to have round stars, which also means that all the data of the galaxy (like dust lanes etc) after stacking will lay upon each other than be spread out over an area. This way you can obtain more detail.

[earth titan]

That really is good.

Wait until 12 months on and go back and have a look at what you did before.

I did!

You'll be pleasantly surprised.

[laser_jock99]

By the looks of it, you will need to first sort out the tracking. Guiding will come later. Drift align your mount, its worth the pain. Then bracket your exposure time. That is take a few exposures of different time settings until you find the longest duration you can obtain without any visible trailing. It helps to have round stars, which also means that all the data of the galaxy (like dust lanes etc) after stacking will lay upon each other than be spread out over an area. This way you can obtain more detail.

Yes, good polar alignement will help a lot too. Is this a permanent pier mount or portable set up? When I'm using my portable setup (which is still guided) I go to great pains to get the alignment as spot on as I can using an hour angle method. Takes about 10 minutes but it's worth the time (and the scope probably cools a down bit too). The good thing about the observatory is that I don't have this faff every session I know the polar align is good every time.

[badgerchap]

Portable set up :/ would love to have a pier but the ground around the house is awkwardly placed - I have to move either side of the driveway depending on what I'm looking at! This can get frustrating at times, but a move is on the horizon, so hopefully a more permanent set up can be attained. I also have a slight defect in my dec axis, but that shouldn't make a difference to the tracking, am I right?