M31 and M45

[Apharov]

I just got back to astrophotography after a break of 1,5 years. Switched from unguided 200PDS to guided 130PDS, here are the first results after quick stacking in DSS and editing in Lightroom. I had darks but did not use them, since it turned out to be better to remove the hot red pixels in noise reduction than suffer the black splotches in their stead.

Guiding with PHD2 turned out work without issues, though the stars are not fully round yet. I think I'll need to tune the mount since the guide graph was quite jagged at 2s exposures.

M31: 70D with LPS-D1, 9x240s@ISO800, no darks, vignetting fixed in post.

M45: 70D with LPS-D1, 7x480s@ISO800, no darks, 8x flats.

[Scorpius]

Both really nice images.The one of M45 is my favorite, those diffraction spikes look awesome...

[Atreta]

beautiful, i plan to image m45 when the clouds break.

[glowingturnip]

nicely done - I like how you've handled Andromeda, especially the core, looks very natural

[Vox45]

I really love your M45 ... I tried to image it in august but I could not get the beautiful blue you got out of yours very impressive

[laudropb]

Super images. Thanks for posting.

[Astrosurf]

Very nice images. I must give M45 a go again, especially as my daughter's called Maia!

Have a go at 5+min subs for Andromeda's arms, with those shorter exposures for the core, and combine them. I only use Photoshop so I can't advise about Lightroom!

Alexxx

[Apharov]

Thanks for the comments! I'll try to get some 480/960s subs to complement the current ones once the clouds clear again