M31 reprocessed at last !

[leemanley]

Morning all, having been working away all week I'm finally home and been able to have a play with some of the data from last Saturday night, here's the results of 6x10mins subs of M31, darks and flats added in DSS. I'm sure there's more to get out of this one yet.
Think I've nailed the guiding aspect now, things can only get better as winter approaches !!!

Taken with canon 550d, LP filter on coma corrector through the 200PDS.
Thanks for looking
Lee

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Very nice 

[floppygoose]

Good work Lee

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice work. Very natural looking.

[leemanley]

Thanks for your comments, cant wait to add more data to this, might even get lucky tonight, fingers crossed !

[themaninthesuitcase]

Looks great.  

I've been looking at the 200PDS-HEQ5 combo you're using, so good to see good results can be had.

[leemanley]

thanks theman..., I'm glad I've got the 200 back in use, I've now added an extra counterweight to the mount as I was'nt able to achieve balance with the AR80s piggybacked for guiding.
I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get more than 10min subs next time I get out, fingers crossed.....

[Bg7pep]

Very Nice !

but,have you try to take the picture with out LP filter ?

or the sky is too light to take picture ?

(pardon me for my weak english)

[mitchelln]

Really lovely picture. Congrats

[leemanley]

thanks, I'll be going back to it tonight by the look of the forecast, and I'll have a go without the LP filter, maybe its holding back some of the fainter details in the dust lanes, should be interesting to compare the results. 

[Daniel-K]

looks a good start it could do with running through HLGV to get rind of the green noise. but just keep adding data. dont forget your short subs though to help control the core id do 50 x 30 sec's for the core. iso 400-800 you'd be surprised how much it helps.

[Bg7pep]

hello leemanly.

i've  read the introduce of your M31 img taking method.

there a question i have to ask:

if you only taking 6 of 10min img of M31 to dss except the darks and flats?

have you take any other img in shorter exposure ? just like 1min or shorter ?

10 min per img may be too long for capturing the core of the M31.

it may be helpful to use with the long time exposure img in DSS  to increasing the contrast of the entirety M31,

but ,in the same time ,the long time exposure will make the core over exposuer.

and then the core will lost it's detail .

make several level short exposuer time img of m31,it is helpful to increase the detail of the core.and make the M31 looks more natural.

i hope it be helpful to you .

(pardon me for my weak english)

clear sky's!

[Bg7pep]

hello,i've read the other topic named:2nd light - M42 the Orion Nebula.

which started by  Alveprinsen ,

and there's a  link post by Uranium235 at #13.

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/LAYMASK.HTM

please spend some time to read ,it will help you !

[shedifice]

Top pic, wish I had the kit to do that!

[leemanley]

This was my first main go at M31, I got carried away with taking as many long exposures as I could before the clouds rolled in ! I will be adding a lot more frames to it both short and long, I'm working on a new set of flats to add later on.

Closer inspection shows that the stars are not well focussed so that'll not help the image, have now got a mask so that issue will be resolved straight away !

[astrosatch]

Greetings!

Nice picture you have there. You wrote that you had to add extra counterweight on mount to achieve balance.How does it track now?Is guiding ok? I read on diferent occasions that system of similar weight is pushing limits for this mount. I have heq5 pro and skywatcher 200p, which i believe is little heavier than pds. I would use eos 450d and guiding through finderscope. Would mine system be ok for imaging?

Thanks!

[Russe]

Thanks for your comments, cant wait to add more data to this, might even get lucky tonight, fingers crossed !

Great picture!

How would you "add more data"?

I've been restacking the new session with the old session in DSS (in different groups with corresponding calibration frames).

How do you go about it? Just stack the new subs and add them as a layer mask in PS5?

[Russe]

Greetings!

Nice picture you have there. You wrote that you had to add extra counterweight on mount to achieve balance.How does it track now?Is guiding ok? I read on diferent occasions that system of similar weight is pushing limits for this mount. I have heq5 pro and skywatcher 200p, which i believe is little heavier than pds. I would use eos 450d and guiding through finderscope. Would mine system be ok for imaging?

Thanks!

It's definitely ok!! You will be on the heavy side of what the HEQ5 can handle and the finder guider might not be providing you with the best pixel resolution for accurate guiding, but you'll be definitely able to start dabbling in the dark art...

[lensman57]

Morning all, having been working away all week I'm finally home and been able to have a play with some of the data from last Saturday night, here's the results of 6x10mins subs of M31, darks and flats added in DSS. I'm sure there's more to get out of this one yet.

Think I've nailed the guiding aspect now, things can only get better as winter approaches !!!

M311.png

Taken with canon 550d, LP filter on coma corrector through the 200PDS.

Thanks for looking

Lee

Hi Lee,

Well done, this is very nice but there are a few things you can do to improve it.

1 Get rid of the green cast

2 The sensor illumination is uneven, make sure the camera and the corrector are sitting centerally in the focuser and are not  tilted. You can deal with the  vignetting  at a later stage.

3 There is still a little more detail that you could tease out once it has been cleaned up.

I also think that you'd be better off using your ED 80 and the Canon rather than the 200p, this way you will get all of the M31 in the frame, it is larger than many people think.

I just had a quick go with it just to show you what I meant, I have not colour balanced it., I hope you don't mind.

Regards,

A.G

[Russe]

Processing really is a dark art...

[rockinrome]

Love that. Seems to have that "old" film-like quality too it which looks good.

[leemanley]

Thanks to all who have replied with comments and suggestions, I've been working away all week so not had time to reply earlier !
I'm beginning to think that the actual data capture is the easy part, its the processing where the real work begins, as someone once said, you never stop learning !!!