M31 - Third Time Lucky?

[PhotoGav]

Well, here it is. The results of some fairly intensive processing lectures and a whole new set of subs... My third attempt at M31:

31 x 240s subs and 27 x 240s darks. SW80ED with FF/R on HEQ5 (unguided) with Canon 60D (unmodded) at 800 ISO.

It's far from perfect - I think I may have overcooked it on the colour saturation slightly! I guess I was a bit excited at discovering how to get colour into the image... But it feels like a step in the right direction.

My massive thanks go to Olly and Stuart, who gave me invaluable advice and links in the thread of my second attempt (http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/197871-m31-overstretching-me/).

Opinions please!

[PhotoGav]

Here's the file as a png - the jpeg seems to upload very small...

Hope that looks better!

[frugal]

Wow!

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

[Big_Daz]

Great pic of Andromeda, well done Gav.

[ollypenrice]

Super. You have the illuminaton right with the faint stuff visible and the core looking natural. I think there are tweaks to the colour balance to be made. If you look at each channel in Levels, does the top left of the peak line up in each? 

Olly

[Jason71]

Looks very good to me. I don't know any thing about astro photography but it looks pretty good.

[sharkmelley]

You've got some good data there and it's very nicely processed!

There's a slight green cast to it but i reckon it's spot on apart from that.

Mark

[swag72]

You have colour in there, so that's good and can be adjusted easily once it's there! The dust lanes look good - You should be very pleased with this indeed. I admire your resolve to keep going with it - I imagined M31 in my early days and have been too scared to go back since!!!

[PhotoGav]

Thank you folks.

There's a slight green cast to it but i reckon it's spot on apart from that.

Mark

Ha - that was the one step I missed out... Hasta La Vista Green is a Windows only filter and I'm running on a Mac! It doesn't seem to be available for Mac. Anybody know of an equivalent or the techniques used in HLVG to apply on the Mac?

I think there are tweaks to the colour balance to be made. If you look at each channel in Levels, does the top left of the peak line up in each? 

Olly

I did check the levels to do a final balance and thought that all looked OK in the histograms, but I will go back and look again...

Sara - you should be brave and face your old fears... I'd love to see what you would do with M31. I'm sure it would be stunning!

Cheers folks and clear skies to all!

Gav.

[jeremy1]

That is a stunning picture Gav.

[mattytheshark]

Congratulations Gav; you have an amazing picture there. It is an inspiration to us who are just starting out!

[Alien 13]

Absolutely awsome image it looks so natural it certainly gives me food for thought with my attempts so far.

[Pete Presland]

a cracking result, very well done !

[Sam]

That's a great image, well done.

[robbie c]

Looks great to me 

[vulkan]

Superb picture with an amazing amount of detail, I think this might be my next target so I may have to get a few tips