M31, first bash at it this year.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

M31 is still too close to the main road (streetlights) for me, but I had to have a bash at it last night while I was waiting for comet Holmes to clear the tree.

(click for ginormification )

Nikon D50 on a SkyWatcher ED80 on top of an HEQ5 mount. Twenty odd 3 minute shots at ISO800 plus one dark. Guided using an SC3 webcam in normal mode by K3CCD guide software. Stacked in DSS (we have made friends it seems) and levels and curves in Photoshop. The edges are suffering from the false flat not blurring properly at the edges, which I think would tidy up, but I can't get the noise to go away.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[Grant]

Nice KK! Tons of detail in there

Can't wait to see what you get from it when its higher up!!!

[qcdougn]

KK,

Very Nice scale and framing. I envy you chaps that can master this one. I've not had the luck to do it yet. You have lots of detail.

Doug

[jcm]

Nice one , KK

Lots of detail considering the light pollution.

Are you using a light pollution filter?

John

[CELESCOPE]

Ah now the dust lanes look good on that one KK, pretty good one mate ,

Rog

[geoff_k]

Nicely done, KK. A good bash I would say.

Love to get a shot like that.

Geoff

[centroid]

Street lights or not, that's a 'result'!!

Beautifully controlled 'core', and the 'dust lanes' to go with it.

What more could you ask

Dave

[beamish]

Your luck seems to have returned to partner your hard work. Belter !

Karlo

[SteveL]

I`m glad you and DSS have made up

[cygnusx1]

thats a v respectable M31 KK!

[barkis]

It's worth a salute that one Kaptain. Got everything as that, a great galaxy with it's companions, prominent dust lanes, and nice stars all around.

Now I don't want to nit pick, but what is the red border on the right hand side down to.?

Ron.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Now I don't want to nit pick, but what is the red border on the right hand side down to.?

Ron.

Its what I said Ron mate. To do a false flat, you do a blur of the image with the stars taken out, if possible. The blur bit fails at the edges because there's nothing beyond the edge to average, so the blur goes wrong. This is what showed up here and I'm fairly sure that I don't need this in the image. In a month or two the target will be a lot further away from the streetlighting so the noise will not be so pronounced and won't show up so badly. This is because the noise reduction technique will have a lot less noise to start with so it will be less "heavy duty" in it's approach. I hope that makes sense?

At least you didn't notice the warren ful of dust bunnies that I had to harvest off the thing. Must clean the camera.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[barkis]

Thanks for the explanation KK. I think I understood what you said. There is a lot more to processing an image than can be gleaned in any short period of time. I can see I am going to have to go to school for a long time.

Cheers mate.

[MartinB]

There's a lot of dust there KK. Have you tried using more flats cos they have noise as well?