Yet another Andromeda Galaxy...

[Stub Mandrel]

To my surprise last night wasn't a complete write-off. I managed to get another 135 minutes of decent 5-minute frames of M31, this time without my LP filter. Total of 3 hours 55 minutes with my cooled canon. There was some streaky noise caused by drifting very thin cloud.

The subs were much brighter and no moon plus high elevation meant I got away with it. The mix of frames with and without filter stopped the core being too badly blown out. I think I've controlled my urge to over-process this time, but any suggestions for improvement welcome.

 

[alan potts]

Well I think that is very nice indeed. I had a little go at this as I am very much on the learn as to this art. I found the core was beginning to burn out even after about 20x30 sec lights, by which time of course there were no dust lanes detail at all, just a hint they were there. How do you hold the core from burning out?

Alan

[Stub Mandrel]

6 minutes ago, alan potts said:

How do you hold the core from burning out?

I make sure my stretches don't affect the brighter part of the image by applying an 'S'-shaped curve, that seems to work.

[alan potts]

Thanks for that I think I understand it, what I did was hardly any good I didn't even get all 3 galaxies in the frame, I am only learning. I am fairly decent in PS but need a bit of practice as for so long now I have used Element for normal camera work but it will come. It would be nice to get rid of this grey at the moment.

Alan

[Stub Mandrel]

It's just practice. Just keep everything as you will go back and find more detail as you discover new techniques.

I've just blended in a layer with some contrast enhancement, again I've tried not to over do it:

[alan potts]

I feel Neil maybe the "line not over do it" is about the only thing apart from the capture where normal and AP are the same. I have seen many and probably done myself, photo's ruined by not knowing when to stop, the main reason that I still use filters to get the sky right.