Heart of Andromeda

[Stub Mandrel]

I'm not sure what folks will think of this image - I'm not even sure myself.

After a session imaging a pair of stars, one of which wasn't Neptune :-( I pointed the scope at Andromeda, planning to change to an eyepiece, but I thought I would take a few subs as the camera was focused. I was using an X2 barlow on my already long scope and the 30s subs actually came out underexposed and therefore noise is an issue. DSS would only stack three subs. I created an RGB layer with 8 subs. the two pictures are the 8-sub image at the top, and the best three images below - you can see the stars are pin-sharp in the second image.

I'm not even sure there is an useful information in these pictures, but an interesting exercise, if only because it shows the centre of the galaxy looks the same no matter how much you zoom in!

[Astrosurf]

Andromeda's arms are very faint and need at least 3min subs, guided, to get any detail. I believe your scope is F8?? A tad slow for DSOs, but not impossible. But with a Barlow the speed is far too slow. Have a go with brighter DSOs like globular clusters. M27 the Dumbbell Nebula, while small, is a lovely, bright object.

Alexxx

[ollypenrice]

Fast F ratio is the stuff of deep sky imaging. Don't go near a Barlow!

Olly

[Stub Mandrel]

I've already made a start on clusters and brighter nebulae/s, this was just by way of an experiment. I was surprised how much the barlow ate light, but for planetary use it has an IR filter on it, and this goes between the body and the lens so I think it has the effect of increasing the power even more (?) I may have lost as much as three stops?

Even the 700mm scope is too long for M31 so once I've made a mount adaptor the next attempt will be with a 400mm lens.

I was surprised that I got so many usable subs with such along effective focal length.

[iksobarg]

It's much better then mine! (doesn't have any to show! yet!)

Keep up the fine work!

[Stub Mandrel]

It's certainly better than the one I tried to take with my 700mm scope. Turned out that my home-made camera adaptor needed a bigger hole in the middle and coat of black paint inside.Add in mist and inexperience and I shudder to look at this: