Triangulum Galaxy (M33)

[Davide Simonetti]

This is my third attempt at imaging M33, the previous two attempts weren't too bad but were either a bit too noisy or a bit too faint so this time it was given plenty of longer exposures with a dedicated astronomy camera and a better polar alignment. The resulting image is much more satisfying. Conditions were pretty good for this part of London, a nice clear night with just a few high wispy clouds, no wind and no Moon. However it was quite humid and the seeing could have been better. The only problem was the light source used to make flat frames needs some adjustment as the processed image had a massive gradient which was hard to remove without messing up other parts of the picture. To get around this I used a master flat from a previous session.

 

042 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
045 x flat frames
100 x bias/offset frames
Binning 1x1

Total integration time = 3 hours 30 minutes

Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Polar Alignment with SharpCap Pro 
Processed in Nebulosity, Fitsworks and Photoshop 

[tomato]

Great result, hats off to you for imaging a faint object like this from London.

[Davide Simonetti]

4 hours ago, tomato said:

Great result, hats off to you for imaging a faint object like this from London.

Thanks Tomato ?