M31 with too much moonlight 7/10/12

Tzetze

Taken over two nights, this is a total of 4h10m data. There was a lot of light in the sky thanks to a waning gibbous moon and it really washed out a lot of the detail. Nevertheless I'm reasonably happy with the fact that I got so many usable subs at 600s, until the meridian flip, that is, when the guiding graph got very spikey before smoothing out again after a couple of hours.

There may be some good nights later in the week and I'd like to retarget M31 without a moon up and maybe step down to 360s exposures to prevent blowing out the core quite so much.

4h 10m data;
25x 600s subs
18 darks
25 flats
Canon 450D, CG5-GT, SW ED80
Stacked in DSS, Tweaked in PS & Lightroom


M31 071012 by .Tzetze., on Flickr

shizz

Wow man. Thats a beautiful picture.

Bohrio

Beautiful, the level of detail is impressive

How big is m31 in the original picture?

I can't wait to improve my astrophotography techniques... I will need to buy a motor for the tripod for starters but one thing at a time

Tzetze

Bohrio wrote: »

Beautiful, the level of detail is impressive

How big is m31 in the original picture?

I can't wait to improve my astrophotography techniques... I will need to buy a motor for the tripod for starters but one thing at a time

Thanks guys.
One thing at a time indeed, Bohrio. This hobby requires more patience than Angling!
That's the full-size image without any cropping. According to Tonight's Sky, M31 is 189.10X61.7 - roughly 3° x 1°

DubOnHoliday

Thats a superb photo, beautiful. Well done.

Bohrio

Tzetze wrote: »

Thanks guys.
One thing at a time indeed, Bohrio. This hobby requires more patience than Angling!
That's the full-size image without any cropping. According to Tonight's Sky, M31 is 189.10X61.7 - roughly 3° x 1°

heheehe, ok then

Interesting, I think that my telescope will not magnify m31 that much, probably 1/4 of the size, we will see anyway, keep them coming

Tzetze

Andromeda is a very big target, you don't need much 'magnifiication'. Try to think more in terms of focal length than magnification. This shot was taken at a focal length of 600mm without a barlow/reducer.
You can use CCD Calc to enter your camera and scope specs and see how objects will be framed. Add in barlow or focal reducer to fill the frame to your requirements.

There are similar browser-based tools, but I don't have a link..

Bohrio

Tzetze wrote: »

Andromeda is a very big target, you don't need much 'magnifiication'. Try to think more in terms of focal length than magnification. This shot was taken at a focal length of 600mm without a barlow/reducer.
You can use CCD Calc to enter your camera and scope specs and see how objects will be framed. Add in barlow or focal reducer to fill the frame to your requirements.

There are similar browser-based tools, but I don't have a link..

Thanks for the tip... will have a look now

Kersh

Awesome

One day . . .

ThatDrGuy

Well done Tzetze, that's phenomenal .