First guided image of M31

[carldr]

Hi all,

Find attached the result of my first guided attempt at M31. The guiding setup is fairly cobbled together until I receive a bunch of things from FLO.

The imaging scope is an Equinox 80ED with a Canon 500D (unmodded) attached, and the guide scope is the OTA from my Astromaster 130EQ with a QHY5 attached. The 130EQ is piggybacked on top of the Equinox using just rings (ie, rings attached to rings, no dovetail in between), and rather surprisingly, the assembly is stable.

This is only temporary until I receive equipment to mount a ST80 in tandem with the Equinox.

As for the image, it was taken on Saturday evening in a short window between the cloud. I only had time to capture 8 x 150s images, which were then stacked in DSS along with three dark frames. I used ISO 1600, which produced pretty noisy frames, I think I'll try ISO 800 next time to see what difference it makes.

I really don't have any idea about the post-processing options in DSS, but after experimenting for a while, I came up with the attached image!

Considering it's only three weeks or so since I first saw M31 through a scope, and only the second time I've tried imaging M31 at all, I'm really happy with it.

I'd like to hear your comments on how I could improve the image. I guess a lot more data will help, as would a field flattener of course, but is there anything I could do with the processing of the files that might help?

Regards,

Carl.

[daz]

More data, firstly!

Second, look in the Beginners sections for the excellent Primers from MartinB.

For a first guided image, it is really good!! I don't use DSS but I understand it has a tendancy to produce an unsaturated colour image, so you need to find the tool that boosts the colour...

But it really is a cracking first guided image!

[daz]

A quick tweak in PS....

[carldr]

Hi,

Thanks for your comments! I'll check out those primers.

And yeah, I'm having difficulty getting colour out of DSS (although at this stage I don't know if that's down to it or me!) What do you use, out of interest?

Regards,

Carl.

[carldr]

A quick tweak in PS....

Oh, nice, thanks for that! What did you tweak?

Regards,

Carl.

[Beyond_Vision]

A very good first guided image. You can raise the saturation to around 16-18% within DSS. It's can be found at the bottom of the window on a tab. Alternatively you can adjust it in other applications like Photoshop Elements or CS* or free programs like GIMP etc.

Regards

Kevin

[melsky]

Hi Carl

Great shot of the Andromeda galaxy, with a little juggling of your data in PhotoShop I managed to get this....

Mel

[carldr]

Hey Mel,

Hi Carl

Great shot of the Andromeda galaxy, with a little juggling of your data in PhotoShop I managed to get this....

Mel

That's pretty amazing, it's hard to believe it's the same image! It's definitely given me the enthusiasm to revisit the post-processing as I've obviously got a lot to learn.

Thanks for the time you spend on the image.

Regards,

Carl.

[melsky]

You're welcome, half the fun of this game is in the processing of the image.

Mel