My first M31

[Sfarndell]

I'm still new to this astrophotography business and this is my first pic of Andromeda. I struggled most with the post-processing.

8x 1 min unguided as still struggling with guidecam and the PEC on my mount still needs some tweaking.

No darks or flats. Image had to be shrunk to fit here so is a bit more grainy than it should be

Camera: Canon 450D

Mount: Meade LX200 polar aligned

Telescope: Revelation 80mm semi-apo

I would be chuffed if someone could take this and try and bring out more details!

[paul11]

I’m no expert but I had a quick play,,,Paul.

[samtheeagle]

Great first effort! Reminds me of my first attempt at that target not so long ago... Happy days. Just keep adding data and you'll be amazed at the detail that comes out.

[steppenwolf]

This is a really good first attempt so well done. I have had a little tweak with your data but unfortunately, working from a compressed jpeg has meant the appearance of some unwanted artefacts but here goes anyway.

I used 'levels' to adjust the colours to more neutral. Gradient Xterminator to help resolve the vignetting and a mixture of 'curves', 'saturation' and more 'levels' to get to this point:-

[Sfarndell]

Thanks Steve & Paul. Your versions look great! I'll try tweaking some more until I get closer to what you have.

Hopefully I'll be able to get my guiding right and take longer exposures soon

Scott