M31 and M45 - Sony A300 first light!

[Andrew*]

Finally managed to get out last night and test out the new camera. The moon made conditions far less than favourable, but it had to be done. Ironically, I couldn't even image the moon as it was behind a wall :x .

I ran out of time to give these targets the exposure they deserve, plus the moon was making the sky ever worse. So in processing I had to really pull out the detail and they ended up quite noisy.

So, without further ado:

M31 - the Andromeda Galaxy.

8x2 minutes + darks. ISO 800 and 1600. I swear I did more data on this :? . Also, for some reason the orangey individual frames came out grey after goign through DSS, so I didn't need to do any colour balancing in PS...

(click to enlarge)

M45 - the Pleiades.

10 minutes total from 14 subs + darks. ISO 400-3200. Yes, that awful blue noise is nebulosity. It was too close to the moon to be a sensible target, but I went for it anyway.

(click to enlarge)

So am I pleased with the results from the Sony's first light? Definitely! Even at ISO 800 the noise is barely noticeable. The images are so noisy because of too few subs and because the image was pulled so much. Next time, no moon and more data.

Oh, and by the way, scope used was an ED80 at prime focus.

Cheers

Andrew

[Psychobilly]

Hi Andy,

Nice to see the images from the new camera...

Have you taken bias frames yet?

They would help a bit and have you played with the cosmetic settings in DSS?

Billy...

[blinky]

Great stuff Andrew! Wonderfull feeling when you see the images appear onscreen eh?

[mik]

Well done Andrew thats a fine start to your dslr imaging.

Mick

[Andrew*]

Thanks chaps

Yes Craig, it was a superb feeling to see a nice smooth round blob come up on the screen when I centred on Deneb, then focused it to a tiny dot. 8) But even better was when I saw M31 with a dust lane on the first sub.

It was definitely not the night for this, and I didn't manage to get half the data I wished for due to time constraints. Without these problems, I can see myself getting on quite well with this camera...

Andrew

[Keagle]

I'm impressed! Makes a change from the flow of Canon's, and the results seem impressive.

Kurt

[Jamie]

Nice one Andrew.

Your imaging skills are getting better all the time matey....

[Beyond_Vision]

A great start with a new camera. As you say longer subs under a moon free sky and you will be on your way

Regards

Kevin

[MartinB]

Well done Andrew, a good start with the new cam. You did very well there with the a big moon around

[Andrew*]

Thanks a lot guys.

In retrospect the time spent on M45 would have been well spent getting some more of M31... never mind.

Andrew

[Psychobilly]

For something quick on a moonlit night you cant go far wrong with M42/M43 as its so "bright" or the moon itself I suppose...know your enemy and all that...

Billy...

[Andrew*]

Oh I love the moon and would have been happy to have imaged her, but neither her nor M42 were up yet.

Andrew

[Psychobilly]

Yes its an all nighter for me to get M42 shots at the moment get an hour between the trees and another hour before dawn...

Always a difficult choice between iamging the Flame and HHN or M42/M43 depends on luna which I target.

[RobH]

Nice set of images from the new camera Andrew, as you say, you just need no moon and more subs.

M31 looks great.

Cheers

Rob