M31 with a DSLR and tripod

[Daf1983]

This is my first attempt imaging M31, with a Canon 600d, tripod, and a cheap old pentax 40-80mm lens I picked up on ebay for £15. I took 300 light frames,  3 second exposures at an iso of 3200. I also took 100 dark frames and about 50 bias. Stacked in DSS and edited in GIMP.

This is my first attempt at astrophotography and also at using software such as GIMP, so it's a steep learning curve. I plan on getting a star tracker eventually, but wanted to see what I could achieve with this simple set up first. 

I understand that it's nowhere near as impressive as most images posted on here, but I'm quite happy with it as a first attempt, considering the obvious limitations of my equipment. 

Any constructive criticism would be welcome, as I don't really have an idea what I'm doing when it comes to post-processing. 😬

[Marvin Jenkins]

Great first time effort. I know I had a couple of bites at the Andromeda cherry before I got a useable image.

I am not going to say anything to do with doing anything wrong, you have already proved you can get focus and frame your target which is the main battle.

I would suggest you try slightly longer exposure lengths. Try a test shot at ten seconds and see if you have star trailing. I may not be right of course but I would be tempted to lower the ISO a tad and try for ten or so longer exposures. No trailing, get a few more subs.

You have captured M101 perfectly out on the edge and have shown that you can get something out of stacking software and Gimp, took me months. Keep up the good work DSO imager.
 

Marv

[Daf1983]

8 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Great first time effort. I know I had a couple of bites at the Andromeda cherry before I got a useable image.

I am not going to say anything to do with doing anything wrong, you have already proved you can get focus and frame your target which is the main battle.

I would suggest you try slightly longer exposure lengths. Try a test shot at ten seconds and see if you have star trailing. I may not be right of course but I would be tempted to lower the ISO a tad and try for ten or so longer exposures. No trailing, get a few more subs.

You have captured M101 perfectly out on the edge and have shown that you can get something out of stacking software and Gimp, took me months. Keep up the good work DSO imager.
 

Marv

Thanks for the advice. I was wondering if I could push the exposure a little longer, but opted for 3 seconds after inputting my camera model/lens/target etc into the NPF formula on this website.

https://www.sahavre.fr/tutoriels/astrophoto/34-regle-npf-temps-de-pose-pour-eviter-le-file-d-etoiles

Not sure if there's any merit to this formula, but a tutorial on youtube suggested it.

 

[Marvin Jenkins]

Great thing about DSLRs, you can push everything, a bit at a time and see the results right there. A lot to be said for following formula, but experimentation is the key. Don’t be afraid to push to the limits, you can just chuck crap subs in the bin.

On a mount of some description reasonably well polar aligned. Focal length around 50mm, ISO 800 ish, F3 to 4 you may well be able to go 20 second exposures.

Marv