A wide-ish view of M31

[PhotoGav]

I wanted to grab a wide-ish view of M31 for a thing I am working on at the moment, so set up my Star Adventurer in my garden last night. I managed to get just over an hour of 2 minute subs with my Canon EOS 1Dx and 70-200 lens, set at 135mm (the classic portrait focal length!), ISO 1600 and f3.5. I shot darks, flats and bias. All processed in APP and Photoshop. I had a nightmare with gradients - the seeing obviously wasn't that good afterall last night! It was certainly cold enough out there, about -3ºC by the end of the session, brrr... Gradient Xterminator has done a reasonable job of hiding them, ish. Anyway, I thought I would share the resulting image. One thing I wonder, apart from shooting cleaner data with fewer gradients, is how to take an amazing image rather than just this OK image?? Do I simply need better skies?

[knobby]

I think it's nice ! usual answer is more data ...

[tomato]

I think you are being a bit hard on yourself, the image stands up to a lot of zooming  in and close scrutiny.

I am asking that same question about the quality of my images more and more lately, and I have come to the conclusion that either: top notch RGB galaxy imaging is a whole lot easier under a decent dark sky, or: I still have a lot to learn. 

I think both conclusions are valid.

[PhotoGav]

Thank you @knobby and @tomato . The quest for the perfect image is endless! Yes, more data is a definite. I look forward to trying again soon.

[Ruud]

Finally it has the room that it needs!

It's a grand image, Gav.

Many thanks for sharing!

[paul mc c]

Think thats comet Swift-Gehrels in there too.....lovely image.

[andrew63]

I think you've captured Comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels Gav. Near the bottom of the frame under Andromeda.  That's the bonus of a wide-field view!

andrew

[mcrowle]

Excellent result, and a great time to image M31 - with Comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels nearby.

Regards, Mike.

[GordonD]

I think that is a terrific image! I love the perspective it gives. Great stuff.

[PhotoGav]

Thank you folks.

And well noted with 64P - I had noticed the fuzzy ball below M31 and had got as far as thinking perhaps it was M33, but it seemed a bit small and in the wrong place! I never took it further, but great that I caught a comet in there too. If only I’d realised I might have done some longer exposures to try and catch a bit of tail.

Anyway, there’s a great bit of feedback on how to make the image better - research what’s in the field of view and have an interesting transient object set against a familiar object to add variety and interest!!