Andromeda from last night

[AndyM]

The weather gave me a break for two hours last night, just enough to rattle off a few frames of M31. It was the first night of imaging with my new toy - a Skywatcher ED80 which I'm liking - a lot! It sits well on the HEQ5 pro a lot more manageable than the 200 Explorer (for imaging anyway, though not so easy to get the 350d focussed).

Taken at prime focus 1600 ISO, 15 70 second frames stacked in Deep Sky Stacker. The image is virtually as it came out of DSS with just a little tweak to the curves in Paintshop.

(click to enlarge)

As ever, all comments welcome.

Andy.

[beamish]

I'd be well chuffed with that, cracking image, XLNT !

Karlo

[moondog]

That's a very good M31 Andy, you got the dust lanes. Good the colour and it's well framed.

The Skywatcher ED80 is a great little imaging scope - I like mine a lot.

Well done

8)

MD

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Very nice Andy, I like that.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[CELESCOPE]

well done Andy that is a great image of M31 ,

Rog

[MikeD]

Very nice detail.

Mike.

[barkis]

WOW!. I would get that one off to the mags right away Andy. Surely one of them will have the sense to centre page it.

It's a real stunner and it deserves a bigger audience.

Ron.

[robindurant]

This has encouraged me to try it next time, great

Robin

[AndyM]

Thanks for the kind comments all.

I'd be well chuffed with that

Very, very chuffed in fact.

I've just given it a bit of a nudge in Paintshop to get rid of the amp glow bottom right.

Any better, or am I just being too fussy?

(click to enlarge)

Andy.

[cygnusx1]

15x70s subs! :shock:

I need 60+ mins to get that sorta detail!

[AndyM]

15x70s subs! :shock:

I need 60+ mins to get that sorta detail!

Yeah but I'm lucky to have pretty dark skies and for those two hours last night they were exceptionally good. The Milky Way looked like a band of thick cloud - lovely sight. 8)

Andy.

[markcol]

Super M31 Andy, yes I think the second one looks an improvement to me.

Just shows how dark skies help doesn't it!

cheers

Mark

[beamish]

Yep you've certainly made an improvement on an already great image-- get it sent in !!

[lunator]

Andy

I think the second pic is an improvement.

It is a very good pic of M31

Cheers

ian

[Beyond_Vision]

Very nice image with relatively short subs. A tighter crop on the picture might get rid of most of the amp glow.

Regards,

Kevin

[legion48]

That's a great capture Andy. I love it.

[steppenwolf]

I love my Skywatcher ED80 and your excellent image reminds me of why I do!

[Cloudwatcher]

I have been flicking between these two very fine images for a while now and at the risk of going against the flow I think the original is the better of the two. The second doesn't have the same 'glow' of the first and to my eye at least seems to have lost some of it's dynamism.

I had a play with first image in PS and if it is 'flipped' it appears to gain more depth somehow. :? Anyway,I think a bit of contrast and luminescence helps although the core suffers a bit.

Cheers

CW

(click as usual)

[AndyM]

Thanks for having a play CW.

I just tried upping the contrast/brightness in PSP but as you say I can't gain that way AND keep the core reasonable.

As regards the orientation I usually flip M31 in images as it looks better - this is the first one I've done "right way up"

Andy.

[supernova]

NICE ONE :shock:

[mpeniak]

Great image Andy. Very well done!

PS: You tweaked it well CW. good job

Martin