First attempt at the Andromeda Galaxy

[Quatermass]

Decided to have a crack at the Andromeda Galaxy this evening despite the moon washing things out. 25 shots at an iso of 400 60 seconds for each one. Still havent got a shutter release yet.

Just having some fun really while the clouds have gone away for the night. Not amazing buy any means but I had fun doing it next year I will have a dedicated ccd camera for this very addictive..

[MartinB]

Those are nice tight, round stars QM. There is some outer nebulosity starting to show up, not sure what processing you've used but I think there may be more in there.

It's very green, I see you are colour blind. Were you shooting in RAW, if so it might be worth having a play with any settings in the software you used, particularly any offset adjustments. You will need to have someone with you who isn't colour blind to advise on best setting for colour.

If you are colour blind it will be very helpful to have someone guide you to get the colour right. However, there are ways of balancing the colour using photoshop which will get you fairly close. Quite a few imagers on here have similar problems. May be worth starting a thread to discuss the problem and ways around it.

[Quatermass]

Hi Martin, I am colour blind and blues and greens are the worst ones for me but having lived with it for all my life I tend to produce images that I like the look of even if they are not quite right. My wife helps me out if I want the colours to be more correct. I notice when I am working in photo shop that the red channel is the worst one and when I reduce that the green channel is the stronger one which is why the green colour is prominent. I was not really making a big effort with this image and shot about 28 subs in Adobe RGB format and 12 dark subs to experiment with. The moon was very close so it was not the best of nights to take shots but I just wanted to have some fun and experiment in getting the Galaxy in the frame the right way up, not easy that. I have yet to get myself a shutter release cable that works, I got a cheap one from ebay and its rubbish so Im going to save up and get the Panasonic one. When I have got that I can do longer exposures and capture some more detail. Its all one big long learning curve but I am having a lot of fun experimenting with my camera and settings and taking notes to add to my knowledge. I do find that sometimes all I want to do is take a few shots and experment with what I have got for later.The skies have been so cloudy that when you get a clear night its a choice between spending hours imaging or taking a few quick shots and then observing. Last night I took those shots of the Andromeda Galaxy then as the moon got closer I thought right thats enough I want to look at the moon now. So many things to see up there! Will post more shots of the Andromeda Galaxy as I continue to work on it they may look a bit blue or green though lol.

heres the shots of the moon I got.

[shaunster]

There is some detail starting to show in the galaxy even for the short subs, keep at it.

Very nice lunar image

[Jannis]

Very good start, i can see details in teh picture there. i belive a bit longer exposures will do better for you, as it appears you're able to track quite well.

Also, try to take pictures in raw, it will keep more details in teh picture when you are stacking them later. a Lot more i found out...

also gives you the option to change white balance afterwards, so you don't get green pictures.

i'm not good at all in photoshop, just so that's said first, but gave it a very quick try to correct the colour and take ut a tiny bit more details. not much success, but that's probably due to my lack of skills in photoshop. Looks like i almost ended up with Less details then the original. I need to practice more...

[Quatermass]

Very good start, i can see details in teh picture there. i belive a bit longer exposures will do better for you, as it appears you're able to track quite well.

Also, try to take pictures in raw, it will keep more details in teh picture when you are stacking them later. a Lot more i found out...

also gives you the option to change white balance afterwards, so you don't get green pictures.

i'm not good at all in photoshop, just so that's said first, but gave it a very quick try to correct the colour and take ut a tiny bit more details. not much success, but that's probably due to my lack of skills in photoshop. Looks like i almost ended up with Less details then the original. I need to practice more...

Thanks for that I will shoot in raw next time and also start doing darks and flats I didnt really go to town on that one just wanted a quick try and see what I got. I started a thread to gather photoshop tutorials if you want to have a look and pass it on to others hoping it will help us all find good tutorial faster heres the link to it for you..

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-discussion/125790-photoshop-astrophotography-tutorials.html#post1653211