M31 Revisited 13/10/12

[Tzetze]

Got back out targetting Andromeda over a couple of nights without the glare of a moon in the sky. Guiding was frustratingly bad and I'd to discard a lot of subs. The 26 that I used were far from ideal but it was either use them or don't process anything at all.

I've since re-tuned my mount, allowing both axes to run much more smoothly and removed some backlash in the gears. Of course clouds have ruined any hopes of giving it a test drive.

4h20m data

26x 600s subs

28x darks

25x flats

450D CG5-GT SWED80

Stacked in DSS, Tweaked in PS & Lightroom

M31 Revisited 13/10/12 by .Tzetze., on Flickr

[atmenterprises]

Nice shot!

[Zul]

Fantastic!

[Stargazer Jack]

Nice image.

[Keiran]

Thats very very good, lovely detail, great lanes.... some nice star colour, but it looks a tad green closer to the outside of the galaxy.

[gingergeek]

Very nice indeed, well done dude

[Gina]

Great shot

[VigdisVZ]

Looks crisp enough to take a bite out of. Good job!

[Tzetze]

Thanks very much guys. Your comments are very encouraging!

I'm not sure I can see the green that was mentioned though, but I guess that's my red-green colour blindness at play.

[Gina]

Sorry to read of your colour blindness. However, though I can see a very slight greenish tinge I wouldn't call it significent. My colour sight is good, I know because I had it tested for a military driving license and it was classed A1.

[Tzetze]

Thanks Gina. The blindness is hardly ever an issue. I enjoy a world full of rich colour, but some are interpreted in a different way to most other people. It all looks perfectly normal to me though - except when I have to cut the red wire, NOT the green one!

I've started using a Skywatcher 2" LP filter - so I wonder if that's causing some colour abnormalities... should I adjust the white balance on camera?

[Fay]

well that is pretty good, you should be happy

Fay

[Hugechris]

Really great shot, captures the warping nicely.

[Uranium235]

Good work on m31.

Youre not wrong when you say you need to tune the cg5 to get the best out of it. Ive never had a problem in ra, but dec backlash would always test your patience. Some nights it would be flawless, other nights you would be pulling your hair out!

One thing to take a look at is your dec clutch. When locked, does it scrape against the plastic dec housing? A telltale sign is a scrape mark in the shape of an arc on the bottom of the housing. I solved that issue by filing the clutch down a bit, seems drastic but its that or change the shape of the housing. To be honest I think its a bit of poor design, as ive seen this issue on other cg5 mounts.