1st DSO ever - M31

[Vox45]

Just began reading on that 'hubble palette' stuff and creating color images in Ha, SII, OIII ..... What have I gone into !!! many sleepless night are coming my way ...

[Alien 13]

I would say its better and agree it can be a headache at first, there are lots of techniques to master so its allways worth keeping old data even if its just the stacked file before processing.

Alan

[Vox45]

I would say its better and agree it can be a headache at first, there are lots of techniques to master so its allways worth keeping old data even if its just the stacked file before processing.

Alan

As Roy Scheider would say "We're gonna need a bigger boat drive"

[WaveSoarer]

That's a great image and you did an excellent job.

[Stratis]

That is spectacular for DSLR work, I could never get an image that clean with mine... yours is modded though which really helps pull out the detail on galaxies

I think this sort of image really proves the excellent colour correction in a fast 80mm triplet, the rendition is really beautiful. The golden colour is my favourite way to present this object

Just advice, for posting on forums PNG format is way better than JPEG, you don't get all those compression artefacts

 

[Vox45]

Thanks for the advice on posting I'll do that in the future

Thank you all for your comments and encouragements ! it is very motivating to see that I am on the right path and can produce presentable work as this forum can be intimidating, not because of the community, who is always so nice and helpful, but because the quality of the work that can be seen here on a daily basis is simply stunning !

[Vox45]

That is spectacular for DSLR work, I could never get an image that clean with mine... yours is modded though which really helps pull out the detail on galaxies

To be fair, I was at 1500m in the Alps (100km from Olly's place actually) under very clear skies; this made my job so much easier to not have to deal with gradiant (correct?) and LP

[Stratis]

Ahhh that explains it.

I actually got a whole nights worth of data on M31 with my Canon 6D early in the year, but it was basically unusable. There was an extreme gradient, which because of the object size I couldn't remove, as well as oceans of colour-cast light pollution thanks to my (then) cheap SkyWatcher LP filter.

I still won't be able to match that image with my DSLR though, it really is great work.

[Guest]

Hi. Thank you so much for your lovely comment on our M31. You have a really nice image which certainly isn't put to shame! We have been imaging for years and it has taken us a long, hard time to get to the stage we are at now. I wish I had one of our early efforts handy to show you- you would smile! I still have our last image of M31 on my wall which we shot years ago with a lens, and it is vastly inferior to yours. You'll be amazed by the difference getting Pixinsight will make too. Hop over to Harry's Astro Shed and watch his tutorials when you have it- we found them invaluable.

Thanks again,

Dave and Zoe

[Vox45]

Hi. Thank you so much for your lovely comment on our M31. You have a really nice image which certainly isn't put to shame! We have been imaging for years and it has taken us a long, hard time to get to the stage we are at now. I wish I had one of our early efforts handy to show you- you would smile! I still have our last image of M31 on my wall which we shot years ago with a lens, and it is vastly inferior to yours. You'll be amazed by the difference getting Pixinsight will make too. Hop over to Harry's Astro Shed and watch his tutorials when you have it- we found them invaluable.

Thanks again,

Dave and Zoe

Coming from you guys, that is a hell of an encouragement for me to continue ! Your M31 just made my jaw drop and motivated me to keep on learning. I can't wait to go back to the Alps for a second go ... This time, I'll go at Olly's place and work with the best imager in France If I can pickup only 1% of his knowledge that will be worthwhile

I have to say that I am now officially hooked on astrophotography, a demanding hobby but what a joy to be able to share those beautiful images with my family and friends. Even if this galaxy has been imaged a thousand time before, this one is mine, and always will be

Thank you for the tip on astroshed and your kind comments

[Guest]

You'll love Olly's place- we have been twice and it is fab Olly is a master of his craft and he and Monique are lovely hosts. We learnt so much when we went.

This hobby is certainly addictive- we find it has an insidious habit of taking over your life...

[Vox45]

I checked out Olly's website and it looks really fabulous ! Nothing like the alps, and not just for astro

Another place I checked out is the Sahara Sky Hotel in Morroco  It's harder to get there for me but, with a lot of advanced planning, that may be my a future birthday present to myself

[toxic]

nothing to judge its a very good Andromeda well done

[Johanvk]

For the final focussing I always use (a serie of) short exposures of some brighter stars in the field (or nearby). Visually judging the zoomed in stellar images and turning the focus knob in small steps. It takes only a few minutes. The digital and optical help ofter apeared, later on, not to be perfect. And it is a disappointment when focus appeared not to be perfect after a long night of imaging.

[MarsG76]

Excellent, especially for a first DSO.