Canon 600D First light - M31

[cuivenion]

This is my first image with my recently aquired Canon EOS 600D.

Imaging Camera: Canon EOS 600D

Scope: 200mm Takumar F4 Lens stopped down to about 5.4

Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5

Guiding: Altair GPCAM Colour and Finderguider

Software: Backyard EOS, Sharpcap, PHD2, EQMOD, CDC, Pixinsight (Stacking and Processing)

This is 141 x 2 minute lights of M31 taken over three nights last week, with 50 flats taken per night (with bias). Three moonless clear nights in a row! I've decided against using darks as I've dithered between every frame.

I'm pretty happy with the 600D and I'm going to get it modded soon. At some point I might try Martin Pyotts peltier cooling design on it. Let me know what you think, comments welcome as usual.

[Rob]

Wow.. very nice indeed.

Rob

[Skyline]

You have done certainly very well on this. It can only get better with a modded camera.

The central core is not blown out. You could darken the background and it will pop the galaxy out a little more.

N.

Edited November 6, 2019 by Skyline

[cuivenion]

Cheers guys. With the background I think I use to clip it too much in the past, and use to much noise reduction. I'll give it another look.

[Cozzy]

Hiya Curivenion

Three moonless clear nights in a row! That is a rarity for us, (I must have slept through them.)

That is a cracking capture with your 200mm Takumar and Canon EOS 600D, some very nice detail in there, good shaped stars in the centre of the field, the background looks nice and neutral, and you have pulled the dust lanes out nicely and controlled the core.

For me (by no means am I an expert of anything) it seems a tad over colour saturated and a bit reddish / orange.

Looking at your image and large amount of work/dedication you have put into it, you have encourage me to get out and be braver with the use my Takumar lens and Canon EOS so thanks for sharing.

 I look forward to seeing your peltier cooling mod if you go down that route.

Tim

[Craney]

That is spectacular.  Excellent work. I may have to dig mine out again, the  mono has taken over.

[assouptro]

Lovely! 
you’ve got to be happy with this!

thanks for sharing 

Bryan 

[maw lod qan]

Very nice.

Seeing  images like this and the others that members post, my simple attempts at any astrophotography makes me think I'm using a Kodak instamatic! 😳

[Allinthehead]

Great first light.

[cuivenion]

Thanks guys, cozzy I do tend to push data a bit to much. I'll definitely revisit it.

[Cozzy]

11 hours ago, cuivenion said:

Thanks guys, cozzy I do tend to push data a bit to much. I'll definitely revisit it.

Cuivenion,

we all tend to push the boundaries of our data which is no bad thing, helps to see what we have in there. You could give the data to 100 people and you would get a 100 differing images. I think it is a belter of an image, likely one of the best I've seen using the Takumar lens (IMHO).

I wasn't aware there are at least 3 SGL members in the Lancaster area, but you live and learn.

 I look forward to seeing more from your set up.

 

cheers

Tim

[cuivenion]

Cheers Tim, very kind words.

[cuivenion]

Had another go.  Brought in the black point, used more noise reduction, balanced the colour and lowered the colour saturation. I think I'll mark this as finished and move on to the Pleiades that I was imaging the same night.

[MartinB]

Superb image, well done!  It shows what can be done a relatively modest set up allied to care and attention to detail.  All that dithering must have taken up quite a bit of time as the guiding got back on track.

[cuivenion]

Thanks Martin, yeah dithering was taking up about 40-60 seconds between shots. I may try dithering every 2-3 shots in future sessions.

[david_taurus83]

That's a cracking image. Better than anything I could do with my 600D! Did you use MT in Pixinsight to reduce the stars?

[cuivenion]

Hi, thanks david. Yes I did use MT, the stars really dominate the image otherwise, at least for this image.

[david_taurus83]

Did you use a star mask? I only ask because there are some of those trace squigly lines left after you use MT. I've recently found if you can create a decent star mask and apply it to the background, then in MT set the amount to 0.100 and iterations to 3, you can apply multiple times to the image and it reduces the stars very gradually and the ones you want to keep retain most of their shape and intensity to a degree. Please dont take it as criticism as it's still a great picture. I've tried a couple of times to image M31 but never seem to get a decent colour out of it!

[cuivenion]

Thanks David, I can see what you're saying. Annoyingly the lines aren't in the first image, maybe my second star mask was a bit lacking. I've found it quite difficult to get a decent star mask as the stars go right to the core and I'm having trouble getting the mask to pick those stars up, so I've boosted the white point of the mask which may have been a mistake. What setting do you use in MT? I've been using Morphological Selection.