M31 with Quattro and 1000D

[Carl M]

Finally a clear night without a capricious breeze where I could actually get some imaging done.

This time M31, which I'd been putting off for a while because I can barely fit in in the frame and because I'd heard it's a big of a pig to process..and so it was. Anyhow, I got it into a position where I'm happy to post it.

34 x 240s ISO 800 - total 2hr 16mins

Dithered with APT and PHD2

No calibration frames

Full spectrum 1000D with Astronomik CLS-CCD clip filter

Quattro 8s on EQ6 guided with ST80 and ASI120MC

Think sometime in near future I will give it another process, but for now it'll do. Next time I will try and do flats to see if it helps create a more uniform background, that seems to be the main problem when processing.

Thanks for looking,

Carl

[Peter Drew]

Super image!  

[barkis]

That's a great result, tinkering with the processing might improve it
but I couldn't advise you on How to do so. 
I would be happy to get one that good. Well done.

[Chris]

Nicely done, you've got that f/4 Newt well tamed by the looks of things  

[triton1]

Superb very natural looking.

[graemlourens]

Great job Carl!

I am a little color blind so please take my advice with a great portion of margin of error...

I though that it first is black and white  only on a second look i saw it is actually color (thats my bad!). I quickly took it to Photoshop and checked out what could still be pulled out color wise. It does get noisy pretty fast, but with a few quick masks & saturations, its easily possible to still pull out a lot of color in the galaxy, assuming you're not going to be printing this large scale...

The detail & sharpness are very nice, and i couldn't say anything bad about that...

Kind regards, Graem

[Carl M]

2 hours ago, graemlourens said:

Great job Carl!

I am a little color blind so please take my advice with a great portion of margin of error...

I though that it first is black and white  only on a second look i saw it is actually color (thats my bad!). I quickly took it to Photoshop and checked out what could still be pulled out color wise. It does get noisy pretty fast, but with a few quick masks & saturations, its easily possible to still pull out a lot of color in the galaxy, assuming you're not going to be printing this large scale...

The detail & sharpness are very nice, and i couldn't say anything bad about that...

Kind regards, Graem

You are right Graem, it's not got a lot of colour just a tint of blue. Colour balance with the Modded DSLR and filter always seem to be a bit of a struggle because it starts off overwhelmingly red after stacking. Normally when I go back and add saturation after processing it also affects the background colour (which I assume is what the masks you are referring to are for).

I would love to see any changes you have made so I can look for improvements for when I inevitably go back reprocess again. If it helps I could post the .tif here or the raw stack for you.

Cheers,

Carl

[bodgebarker]

Hi Carl 

someone with a Quattro . Would you happen to know the model number of the stock focuser, I can't find out anywhere. Trying to make sure the Rigel systems motor will fit. Rigel don't seem to reply.

[toxic]

lovely image 

[laser_jock99]

Great M31.

[michael8554]

Hi Carl

Great image for a 1000D, the Dithering has really worked on the background - how much did you Dither?

Michael

[graemlourens]

11 hours ago, Carl M said:

You are right Graem, it's not got a lot of colour just a tint of blue. Colour balance with the Modded DSLR and filter always seem to be a bit of a struggle because it starts off overwhelmingly red after stacking. Normally when I go back and add saturation after processing it also affects the background colour (which I assume is what the masks you are referring to are for).

I would love to see any changes you have made so I can look for improvements for when I inevitably go back reprocess again. If it helps I could post the .tif here or the raw stack for you.

Cheers,

Carl

Hi Carl.

Absolutely, you can post your linear tiff (before stretching) here or PM to me, and i'll gladly see if what i'm seeing is right (based on jpgs/pngs its always a little different). 

I'll then post my suggestions via PM to you to not hijack the thread or impose on your already amazing result!

Kind regards, Graem

[Carl M]

13 hours ago, bodgebarker said:

Hi Carl 

someone with a Quattro . Would you happen to know the model number of the stock focuser, I can't find out anywhere. Trying to make sure the Rigel systems motor will fit. Rigel don't seem to reply.

I'm not sure on the exact model number I'm afraid, this focuser from FLO is the same as the one fitted on the Quattro I believe.

9 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Hi Carl

Great image for a 1000D, the Dithering has really worked on the background - how much did you Dither?

Michael

Thanks Michael. I think I just left the dithering at the default amount, I don't remember changing it; but here are some screens of the settings I use.

 

[michael8554]

Thanks for the Dither settings - nut why RA only?

Michael

[Marci]

On 24/10/2017 at 19:53, Carl M said:

... Colour balance with the Modded DSLR and filter always seem to be a bit of a struggle because it starts off overwhelmingly red after stacking. Normally when I go back and add saturation after processing it also affects the background colour (which I assume is what the masks you are referring to are for) ...

 

I apply White-balance corrections on a per-sub basis before stacking to get round this... Adobe Lightroom picks up the custom white balance correction programmed into the camera (if you’ve got one) so it’s just a case of bulk exporting to TIFF which applies it, then the stack comes out looking more sane and simplifies the end processing (in my opinion - no idea whether it goes against common practice or not).