Advice Needed on My M31 image

[acharris77]

Hey all, the other night while there was a lot of damp in the air and this did not help with LP I decided to try and image the M31. I took 60 x 1 min subs I got 10 flats and 10 Darks thrown in for good measure and then processed it. I found this very hard to process and while I will go back and see if I can get more detail out this, this is my result I got so far. The only disappointment is that I got red/orange gradient above the M31 that I can't get rid of and I think this spoils it. But the image is below so advice and criticism is appreciated.

Thanks all.

[jtlandreneau]

what tools are you using to process the image? your data looks good, stars are nice and round, but overall the image is very blue. if using photoshop (if not I highly suggest checking out downloading CS2), Andreo's plugins: http://www.deepskycolors.com/tools.html are easy to use, and great for balancing colors. The whitecal pluggin is almost always the first step in my post processing

[JohnnyD333]

The only success I've had with M31 is layering 1 min subs with 4 min subs. I could never pull enough of the dust spirals out with minute subs, and 4 min would blow out the core, so layering works best if you have the guiding capability. I use Adobe Lightroom, similar to photoshop, and adjusting the hue and clarity should fix the blue color and bring out some more detail. I would tinker with a decent photo editing program, I learned just adjusting every level and remembering what worked best. Good luck.

[JohnnyD333]

I tinkered with your image a bit, hope you don't mind (I like the practice).  I adjusted some color, clarity, highlights, and added some masking.  Im no expert by any means, but it just shows how much you can change with post processing software.  Hope you like it.

[acharris77]

@JohnnyD33 No I don't mind you having a go at my image. Actually that is pretty good. I have been trying for 2 days to try and improve my image and to be honest, I have struggled to remove the blue and bring any more detail out in it. But then I am a complete novice at post processing and got a lot learn which I am trying to do lol.

How you did that is amazing. I definitely need to practice lol. Any tips haha.

I do use PS and I will give those plugins a try. Thanks again.

[jtlandreneau]

can you upload the stack to dropbox? i wouldnt mind have a go at it

[seo]

The red-orange or greenish coloring in DSLR subs is a usual thing. You can very easily get rid of it with an image processing software as Photoshop and with a click of a button with a dedicated astro processing software. Pixinsight and AstroArt are two very good examples of dedicated Astro processing softwares. You'll be amazed what they can do they need a lot of learning and practice.

[acharris77]

Thanks all. Below is the dropbox link to the file for anyone who what to have a go:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nosdut67use8bzy/Autosave002.tif?dl=0

Thanks.

[jtlandreneau]

ive been goofing around with your picture - couple of comments - 

i think your focus is really good, and the core is very nicely resolved, but you either have tracking issues, collimation issues, or both. A coma corrector would definitely help with the edges, but you might want to hold off (you can always crop the corners, coma correctors can get pretty pricey when you are just starting out!)

there is a strange blue bias that doesnt want to disappear, not really sure where that is from. I was able to get rid of the dark gradient in the middle after several gradient removal iterations.

so some thoughts - this is a great start! i wouldnt bother over the coma action, definitely check your collimation before shooting though. If you can push your subs to 5 minutes i think youll be getting some great pictures

[acharris77]

Thanks for having a go at the image and the comments. I think it is tracking as when I used the scope on my Alt/Az mount and did only 30 secs, I had no issues with the star shapes. But I will check collimation.

I think the blue bias maybe coming from my Skywatcher LP Filter. I bought the filter from FLO but for some reason using it don't make no difference to the LP pollution only what I think is add a blue tint to the image. The image is as orange with or without.

Thanks again.