Andromeda Galaxy (seedling) 1st attemp.

[Space Cowboy]

This is my first go at Andromeda with my canon 1000d and skymax 127 with alt/az tracking. Went out after 11 pm last night so m31 was over 60 degrees and once it got past 65 degrees the field rotation really kicked in so I only got 3 decent images to stack (1 min each).

Gotta say I'm very encouraged with the result though obviously its just a seedling in terms of the full image with lots of noise but its given me a buzz.

Bit concerned by the circular artefact to the right of the frame which is on each sub?

m31 3 mins data ISO 1600 stacked in DSS :

[theo]

Well done Stuart...you've started to pick out some of the dust lanes. Not sure about the artifact, could be some dust/dirt in the optical train causing the classic doughnut effect in which case you would need a flat frame to remove this. At some point you'll probably want to begin calibrating your subs. This removes unwanted noise (dark current) generated by heat build up in the sensor and read out noise from the electronics + any vignetting and doughnut effects like this.

It sure is nice to get a buzz from imaging these amazing objects!! Glad you are enjoying it.

Pete

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks Pete for the advice!  Darks, flats and bias frames are on my to do list next time for sure. Last night was a quick experiment to see just what kind of image I could get and how the tracking would cope. I need to start when the object is lower in the sky to avoid the severe field rotation effect.