45 minutes of the Andromeda Galaxy., (72ED + 7D + AZ-GTI)

[FaB-Bo-Peep]

Here we have a total of 45 minutes, (15 x 3 minute exposures), of the Andromeda Galaxy. This target is always a challenge in terms of position from my garden and I had to pause image capture while it cleared multiple obstructions. I can't believe how much fun this portable system is, it performs well, (for widefield images), and is an absolute joy to setup and use, (at this stage I'm not sure I'll ever dust off my larger 250PDS Newtonian again).  Again taken from my light polluted back garden.
Imaging scope: Skywatcher 72ED.
Imaging camera: Canon 7D.
Guide scope, Skywatcher 50mm finder scope.
Guide camera: ZWO ASI 120MC-S.
Mount: Skywatcher AZ-GTI.
Filter: Optolong LPRO.
All controlled from an ASI AIR PRO.
Image stacked in DSS and processed, (with my very limited knowledge), in StarTools and Gimp.

[FaB-Bo-Peep]

I'm sure someone with better processing skills could extract even more from the captured data so here's the FTS file straight out of DSS to have a play with if you so desire.

Andromeda-DSS.FTS

Edited July 18, 2021 by FaB-Bo-Peep

[bottletopburly]

Did you use Startools recommended settings for DSS ?

[FaB-Bo-Peep]

1 minute ago, bottletopburly said:

Did you use Startools recommended settings for DSS ?

Yes I'm pretty sure I set all those correctly thanks as I had an issue when I started using StarTools on my new PC and it was down to the fact that I had not done so.

 

[bottletopburly]

Get to 4hrs of data then noise will improve greatly , if you can dither then do so ,did you do any calibration frames ?

 

[FaB-Bo-Peep]

13 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

Get to 4hrs of data then noise will improve greatly , if you can dither then do so ,did you do any calibration frames ?

 

As you correctly say, longer data acquisition time would improve the result but I had to stop as it was getting light.  I'm pretty sure I set the ASIAIR PRO to dither every 4 frames but now I think about it, I don't remember seeing it do so on the guiding graph so I might have messed that up, (but I usually do dither). I used darks but have yet to take any flats.

[bottletopburly]

36 minutes ago, FaB-Bo-Peep said:

As you correctly say, longer data acquisition time would improve the result but I had to stop as it was getting light.  I'm pretty sure I set the ASIAIR PRO to dither every 4 frames but now I think about it, I don't remember seeing it do so on the guiding graph so I might have messed that up, (but I usually do dither). I used darks but have yet to take any flats.

When you take flats take some bias too as they’re subtracted from the flats