M31 Core

[Rodd]

Another experiment.  I had about 45 minutes left of usable darkness and M31 was in perfect position.  I have often considered collecting a bunch of short subs to use for the core region--so I figured why not capture some to see how they would come out.  My intent was to bring out as much structure in the core region without compromising the image.  This is just the green channel, and much more data is needed, so I cropped the area for emphasis.  The whole image was a bit larger--but it was taken with the TOA 130 at a focal length of 1,000, so it was pretty close in anyway--but the lack of data really showed up in the outer regions.

TOA 130 with ASI 1600

Green: 106 20 sec

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Rodd

[Rodd]

Here's the full image--dust lanes still a bit grainy--but the core region has real promise.  No need to add longer subs I don't think--a bunch of 20 sec should pull out pretty much all there is-just need a lot of them.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Rodd

[Rodd]

Off Base?

Rodd

[MilwaukeeLion]

I like the core detail with faint stars coming through. 

[Rodd]

 

33 minutes ago, MilwaukeeLion said:

I like the core detail with faint stars coming through. 

Thanks Milwaukee.  I was surprised at the details revealed by such limited data.  I guess the fact that this target is so bright helps.

Rodd

[Xplode]

Nice core!

M31 is so bright that's it's really just aperture and resolution that makes the core good, there isn't a need for a lot of exposure.

Here's a single 300s luminance exposure at 12,5% the original size.

As you can see here only the small part in the middle is overexposed so you can take pretty long exposures.

[Rodd]

17 minutes ago, Xplode said:

M31 is so bright that's it's really just aperture and resolution that makes the core good, there isn't a need for a lot of exposure.

Here's a single 300s luminance exposure at 12,5% the original size.

A lot depends on the camera's FWC too-- larger pixels do much better.  Also--to get a well reounded image I need to stack many subs--even 300 sec subs.   I shot with 300 sec subs not long ago and the RGB stacks had  small regions of overexposure, but the Lum stack had a much larger one.   I need to stack 3-5 hours of RGB so that small area in one subs grows much larger as subs are stacked.  Your sub looks like 10 hours of data for me. 

Rodd