First attempt at M31

[Charming Potato]

Finally, after weeks of waiting, we had clear skies the other night and I was finally able to get out for imaging! Here's my first attempt at M31 from my backyard.

• Nikon Z50.
• 50-250mm kit lens at 135mm.
• 100 lights @90secs, 50 dark/bias/flat frames each.
• Star Adventurer GTi.
• Siril for stacking and processing.

I started the imaging session right as the sun set, so by the time I set up and finished polar alignment and connected everything, it was already dark. The first 15-20 shots were a bit bright for some reason, I don't know why that was the case (I started shooting 1 hour after sunset), but Siril took care of it in stacking compared to DSS which had a worse sort of result. I took 15 darks right after that since the temperature was going to drop by about 4-5 degrees Celsius, so I took these around the beginning of the session, and the rest at the end of the session. Was that a good thing to do or did I waste my time?

Also is there a way to go past 90-150 seconds of exposure with SA GTi, or do I definitely need a guide scope for that? I think my polar alignment was quite spot on, but when I was going through the pictures, I did notice that the center of the image has moved quite a bit in some of them. Which I'm guessing is tracking errors?

Edited August 20, 2023 by Charming Potato