First Experiences With Andromeda

[PhotoGav]

Hello everyone,

I thought I would share my first astrophoto with you all. I finally attached my old Canon EOS 30D to my recently acquired Skywatcher 80 ED on an HEQ5 mount and, despite a complete botch of a polar alignment (wrong time used from handset - doh, schoolboy error), I actually managed to get a picture I'm happy to show the world!

It's far from perfect, but I guess a good starting point. I shot 15 x 60 second subs at 1600 ISO (a speed rating that I won't be using again on that camera, it's just too noisy) and 15 x 60 second darks to accompany. All pre-processed and stacked in Nebulosity 3, then post processed in Photoshop CS5.

Let me know what you think and I look forward to the next clear night and more tinkering in the dark.

Clear skies and steady tracking to you all!

Gav.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

That is an excellent first shot, well done!

[PhotoGav]

Thank you Michael. It's an amazing area of photography and I'm totally excited about taking many many more pics! I can see that it could become quite obsessive though - so many variables conspiring against the perfect outcome that have to be mastered.

It's pretty staggering to think that that is pretty much what our galaxy would look like if we were on holiday in the Andromeda Galaxy looking back to the Milky Way. Our home is in the midst of all of that........ Wow!

[Nuno]

Wow!

That's a pretty nice shot well done. Good luck for your next photos!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Fantastic image for a first try. If i may be so bold as to ask a question that may be going slightly off topic:

With this image of Andromeda (or any other of it), are we viewing it from slightly below (looking up into) or slightly above it (looking down into)?. I never can tell. To put it another way..............in the image is the other galaxy (M110?) closer to us or further away.

Sorry...............Andromeda is our closest galaxy,so the other one is further away....................so we are seeing andromeda from slightly above (looking downwards into its centre)

Correct?

[PhotoGav]

Thanks - though the more I look around, the more I realise how much better this photo could be! Lots learned and the view of the curve is steep from down here....

The telescope inverts the image and I haven't flipped it back, so the picture is really upside down, so we must be looking up at the Andromeda Galaxy from a bit below it. I think!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Don't worry about orientation. Aussies have a very different angle on this .

Anyway, words like "above" or "below" make very little sense in astronomy

[glowingturnip]

definitely upside down !  those dustlanes are in front of the core.  Yes I know there's no up or down in space, but it still bugs me  :-)

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

definitely upside down !  those dustlanes are in front of the core.  Yes I know there's no up or down in space, but it still bugs me  :-)

Does not bug me as much as the missing satellite galaxy in that M31 wallpaper on Mac OS-X

[AlexB67]

I know nothing about imaging but I appreciate that shot, very nice    As for orientation, it never  bothered me. In newts everything is inside out back to front, In england we drive on the left ( like sensible people  ? ), but somewhere else they insist  is better the other way.  When I see the water go down the plug hole while brushing my teeth in Australia it goes the other way around, and all those pesky scientists have a nasty habit of having negative and positive axes pointing in whatever direction they see fit, I am used to living with it

[mattytheshark]

This is a great photo! Well done! How did you get all of it in the FOV? I'm just starting out myself so am a complete novice

[Jesterowl]

crackin shot 

was having a look at Andromeda through the cope as well tonight

[idigitize]

Great result, and inspiring for people starting out, looking at that same specific gear what can be achieved! (Like me)

[PhotoGav]

This is a great photo! Well done! How did you get all of it in the FOV? I'm just starting out myself so am a complete novice

Thanks Matt - I used the Skywatcher 80ed with the field flattener, making the focal length 510mm. Wide view great for this kind of pic. Never enough equipment though and I'm already thinking about how to get in tight on those little deep objects!

What a fantastic night last night - perfectly clear. I spent about 4 hours up at my star field fiddling around with the polar align feature on the latest SynScan version. Very confusing to begin with and then the cable came out of the handset, so back to square one yet again! However, once set up I took a set of subs of the North America nebula and look forward to processing them later today... Fingers crossed that the tracking worked.... Results will be posted.

Good luck with your imaging and I hope to see your pics on line soon. The camera picks up just soooo much more than our eyes - it's stunning!

[Luke]

Wow, cracking first shot!

[Superdavo]

I think you've taken a few before, because that's amazing!!

David

[Okeydokey]

Good shout!

[PhotoGav]

I'm flattered, thank you, but that really is the result of my first serious imaging session. I too was amazed by the results!

I have been a professional photographer for 13 years, but I specialise in horse racing, so generally in the light with exposures of around 1/1000 second, the polar opposite to astrophotography! I think the one thing that has helped is the experience I have with photoshop. The processing on Nebulosity is pretty amazing, but the pics really come to life in Photoshop.

Anyway, I'm now totally hooked on this astrophotography mullarkey. It's wonderful and damn difficult... If you look at the full size file of the M31 pic, you will see how far off perfect this pic really is!

Clear skies and keep snapping!