M31 first attempt and first post

[Martoon]

Hi,

The time has come for my  first (somewhat scary) post.

This is my first attempt at M31 taken on Monday from my garden using the following:

Canon 60d unmodded

200mm L f/2.8 Wide open

Astrotrac on an EQ3

40 x Lights @ 60s ISO 800

40 x Darks " "

Stacked in DSS and a few quick tweaks in LR4 (currently learning the ropes in processing)

Any comments would be much appreciated. I am looking forward to seeing how the results progress with more exposure time in the near future.

I will also be interested to see what effect the new white street lights being installed by SSE in the Southern region will have as they are popping up incredibly quickly.

[foundaplanet]

Looks like a a good result to me for a first effort, I'd be happy with that.

[Pete Presland]

a very good start, the dust lanes are beginning to show quite nicely. the more data you add to your image the detail you will get.

[Sandancer10]

Welcome and I enjoyed looking at your first picture.  I would be delighted with that. Did you use a Barlow to get such a good result?  I've got one but can't get it into focus with the same camera.

[Martoon]

Welcome and I enjoyed looking at your first picture.  I would be delighted with that. Did you use a Barlow to get such a good result?  I've got one but can't get it into focus with the same camera.

Hi and thanks for your comment. No Barlow on this, just the 200mm lens and fairly good polar alignment  

[symesie04]

Very nice. The eq3 mount did a pretty good job of keeping it steady with a 200mm L series prime on it.

[Velvet]

well done nice 1st attempt there you should be please.

Velvet

[glappkaeft]

Congratulations on you first M31! It looks much better than my first, I didn't even have a remote release and took a few images through my 20 cm Newton by pressing the release button on the camera and then stacked them...

You have avoided most of the pitfalls new astroimagers fall into but since you have already captured quality data I'd like to offer two items of hopefully constructive criticism that I think are important. They may sound like pretty easy fixes they both require some practice to get right. The first is the colour balance, the galaxy has a rather green/cyan tint. Spiral galaxies usually have bluish arms and a white/yellow/reddish core.  While there isn't really a right way to colour balance I feel that you image could be improved if you played around with the colour balance.  

The other is that the stars are all saturated which means that they have lost their colour. To retain star colours either requires a careful stretching of the histogram (and leaving some of the potential of the galaxy on the table) or the use of layer techniques i.e. using layers and masks to treat the galaxy, stars or background differently. To preserve star colour you'd stretch the stars less than the galaxy while using saturation on both to highlight colour.

/Patrik 

[saturn5]

A great start,well done indeed.