M31 The Great Andromeda

[Dan13]

First time at this amazing target! Actually found this one of my hardest yet to process.

3.5 hours intergration, stacked and processed in P.i

Altair 80ED-R

Altair 50 mm guide scope

Asi294mc pro

Asi 120 mm-s

HEQ5 pro

Optolong L-Pro

Clear skies all

[callisto]

Excellent 

 

Mark

[maw lod qan]

Very nice image!

I get a thrill every time I sit and look long enough to just make out the wispy outer spirals. To think how far away it is and that I'm seeing it.

Youve collected some really old photons there!

[Dan13]

2 hours ago, callisto said:

Excellent 

 

Mark

Thank you Mark very much appreciated, clear skies 

[Dan13]

2 hours ago, maw lod qan said:

Very nice image!

I get a thrill every time I sit and look long enough to just make out the wispy outer spirals. To think how far away it is and that I'm seeing it.

Youve collected some really old photons there!

Agreed! Its magical, its often a pinch yourself moment in this hobby. Many thanks for the kind words 

[tooth_dr]

What a great image!  M31 is a difficult one to process, but yours is really nice, particularly the stars.

[Dan13]

8 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

What a great image!  M31 is a difficult one to process, but yours is really nice, particularly the stars.

It certainly is, def one of the harder ones I've had to process lately. Mnay thanks for the kind coment 

[Guest]

I was trying to find this in the early hours of this morning, without any success.

[Dan13]

1 hour ago, merlin100 said:

I was trying to find this in the early hours of this morning, without any success.

To image or observe @merlin100 ? I'm quite fortunate, didnt realise before but at this time of year it rises right in front of me in the back garden! Couldnt image it all night! 

[MarkAR]

Excellent image, processing looks really good.

[Dan13]

3 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Excellent image, processing looks really good.

Thank you Mark, much appreciated 

[Adam1234]

Lovely image 

[Dan13]

13 minutes ago, Adam1234 said:

Lovely image 

Thank you Adam  

[Ouroboros]

@Dan13 Excellent. I wish my first attempt at M31 had been that good. My second too come to think about it.   It is difficult to process, which is kinda counter intuitive given its size and brightness as compared with other targets. I think you’ve got the colour balance just right, to my eye and on my screen anyway. It looks natural, whatever natural is. I often feel less is more when it comes to colour saturation.  It’s also very encouraging to see a one shot colour camera giving such a nice result. 

The other aspect that helps is that your equipment scales the object well. Am I right in assuming that you used a focal reducer to fit it onto that size chip? 

[Dan13]

6 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

@Dan13 Excellent. I wish my first attempt at M31 had been that good. My second too come to think about it.   It is difficult to process, which is kinda counter intuitive given its size and brightness as compared with other targets. I think you’ve got the colour balance just right, to my eye and on my screen anyway. It looks natural, whatever natural is. I often feel less is more when it comes to colour saturation.  It’s also very encouraging to see a one shot colour camera giving such a nice result. 

The other aspect that helps is that your equipment scales the object well. Am I right in assuming that you used a focal reducer to fit it onto that size chip? 

@Ouroboros Hi, thnak you.

Yes it was def a fiddle to process this just how i wanted it, I do like to stay on the side of "natural colouring" if i can when processing. I think im building up a good eye now for what i think is enough and to much.

MY OSC is fantastic, coupled with the L-po or Enhanced its really keeping the urge for a mono purchase at bay  

Yes that right i used a 0.8x flattener which gave me a FL of 444 mm, this is my limit as this isnt cropped at all. I cant fit the heart nebula in i dont think which is a shame as that was going to be next, going to pick up a cheap dslr again i think for some wider field shots with my 300mm lens at some point .

[Ouroboros]

You might miss the lower noise of your camera, assuming it’s cooled. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Dan13 said:

To image or observe @merlin100 ? I'm quite fortunate, didnt realise before but at this time of year it rises right in front of me in the back garden! Couldnt image it all night! 

Observe.  I'd be happy just to see a faint smudge.😉

[Dan13]

24 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

You might miss the lower noise of your camera, assuming it’s cooled. 

Yes i would for sure, it would only be a travel rig i think for the occasional dark sky site visit. i have seen people use there cooled cmos with dslr lens so may look into that also 

[Dan13]

10 minutes ago, merlin100 said:

Observe.  I'd be happy just to see a faint smudge.😉

 ive not long had my mak and was wowed by Jupiter and saturn the other week. im thinking of putting the camera down the next couple of clear nights and do some good observing