Andromeda 54Mins DSLR

[Rudeviewer]

Well I was gunna do a long run on M31 with Backyard EOS since I just downloaded the trial, however an hour into it clouds rolled in, so I had to pull er in.

I Got 35 shots total 1600ISO

10x30 sec

10x60 sec

10x120 sec

10x180 sec

5 darks of each

20 flats

I lost a few subs here and there due to the clouds slowly rolling into a few shots, but not bad for my second APO shot with the 80mm Barska Magnus on the Advanced VX with no guiding.

[ciels noirs]

Great shot

Martin

[Daveb3650]

Absolutely stunning...well done

[Carina Lass]

No guiding: that is really something

[Rudeviewer]

I did the all star polar align three times with the VX.  Each of the times I turned my scope off and started over again.  Also the Barksa Magnus has a focal length of 560mm so made it a little easier.

[Gina]

Nice one

[ghostdance]

Beautiful image, not seen a dusky pink Andromeda before.

Rosette Neb, lookout!

[Rudeviewer]

Here i tried to remove the pink glow from the middle.  Give it more of a yellow orange with the hue.  Added a bit more saturation as well.  This is all I could get out of I without making it look goofy. 

[Rudeviewer]

I added 1hr of data

4x15min shots to see if I could pull more out.

Integrated together manually in PS after processing in PI

After I saw it I edited it as I forgot to use SCNR to remove the green cast.  This one is a bit better

[ghostdance]

Jaw. Dropped.

I will hold this latest image in my mind's eye, next time I'm looking at the misty core and M32 and imagining the rest

[frugal]

The dust lanes in the latest image look really nice, but the core is so bright and orange that it draws the eye away from those beautiful dust lanes.

You must have nice dark skies, I spent 3 times as long on my last attempt at Andromeda (ED80 and a DSLR) and I did not get anywhere near as much definition.

[Rudeviewer]

I do have dark skies.  I am in a small town of 1000 people in rural USA.  I didn't have time to mask the core when I processed this image.  I sorta did it right as I got to work real fast trying to hide the screen lol.  I can also tell when I did the alignment in PS that I didn't get it perfect.  I will try to integrate the 2nd days worth data in DSS and let it align everything and see if I can get the core down with HDR and a few other tricks. 

[reddoss]

That is an amazing image given the number of subs and that it was unguided,

[Rudeviewer]

The second set of 4x15 minute subs was guided but the first set of shorter images was not guided. 

[Rudeviewer]

And im still not happy with the core.  I may have to take a lot more shorter subs to get the core back down.  It seems when I mask the core strange things happen to it, so I tried a different approach.  I do like the dust lanes a bit more however. 

[michael23]

very, very nice images there

[Rudeviewer]

Sittin bored at home on a Friday night decided to play around with pixinsight and my last data on m31 tried to get the core down to normal, and keep the noise levels of the background down.  This is with the first set of data so it isn't as deep into the spiral.  Turned a bit fuzzy but I like it better. 

[mdstuart]

Interesting set of pictures. I have been fascinated by galaxy cores for a while now. What your photos demonstrate is the you can make a huge difference to how a core looks by diffrerent exposure length and processing.

So my question is what does it really look like! If one could see M31 visually from much closer...would it remain very even to the core as it does through a large dob or would you see a core more like the ones in your earlier pictures?

Mark

[Rudeviewer]

Good question, I wonder why the core is so bright, the way most images seem, there is a central "sun" but I would assume it is everything at the center is spinning so fast that it creates a giant hot center of dust.

[Rudeviewer]

Here is My m31 with the rest of the data added and gone through again with pixinsight and Photoshop.  2 hrs. and 9 mins total.