First go at Imaging: M31, what else! ;-)

[Xiga]

Hey fellow gazers,

So having recently jumped on the AP bandwagon, by getting a SW 80ED, I simply had to give it a test run earlier in the week when the skies were actually clear (for a change!).

My backyard is not far from a busy city centre, so LP is a major problem. I've no LP filter as yet, so I was limited to 220 sec subs, before the histogram went past half way. The details are as follows:

21 x 220 sec dithered subs (total 77 mins) at ISO 400. Unmodified Canon 60D

360 Bias, 25 Flats, 25 Darks.

HEQ5Pro

SW 80ED with 0.85 FF/FR

QHY5 & Finder Guider

Software: APT, PHD2, DSS, PI LE (for DBE only), PS CC

Have had a few goes at processing, and came up with the 3 versions below. Still can't quite decide which I prefer, but possibly the 3rd one?

Need to get better at processing, and more importantly, get out to a proper dark sky location so I can up the exposure time and get lots more data to work with.

I'll post a link to the raw stacked Fits file tomorrow, in case anyone wants to have a play.

Advice/Critique more than welcome! :-)

[Xiga]

Arghh, pics didn't upload!

Take 2:

[laudropb]

Nice images, especially for a first go. Thanks for posting.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

The bottom image works best for me, you've picked up some blue in the spiral arms but it lacks the reddish cast in the second image. That's a fine effort, especially from a light polluted area.

[PeterCPC]

Great effort. I find M31 a really tricky target because of light pollution so well done.

Peter

[Space Cowboy]

Very good start!

[StargeezerTim]

Really nice capture and processing. Better than any M31 of mine so far... well done. Tim. 

[Garethr]

Xiga

Nice images there mate. 

That's a tough target to get right 

Gareth 

[xtreemchaos]

very nice mate, you got some nice detail there. well done.  thanks for posting  charl.

[Xiga]

Thanks for all the kind messages. I think it's fair to say i'm now hooked for good!

Can't edit the first post to put the link to the stacked FITS file, so here it is, in case anyone is bored and wants to show off their mad processing skillz 

http://1drv.ms/1Rim8hN

[Xiga]

I'm curious, does any quality get lost in the upload process? 

I've just noticed that on my computer the images look considerably sharper, and with more colour (especially in the stars) compared to the ones i've attached above. 

The Jpeg's aren't even that big, between 4 and 15 MB in size. 

[toxic]

very nice images

[davedownsouth]

Third one's my favourite as well

[Stub Mandrel]

I'm curious, does any quality get lost in the upload process? 

I've just noticed that on my computer the images look considerably sharper, and with more colour (especially in the stars) compared to the ones i've attached above. 

The Jpeg's aren't even that big, between 4 and 15 MB in size. 

I think they are heavily compressed, I had a ~3meg jpg that appeared to reduce to a 500kb one.