M31 last night. 6th clear night in a row at Riberac!
20 x 5min. 300mm lens on modified EOS 350D, F5.6 ISO 800. Binned by factor of 2 and cropped.
As before, this just a preview. I'll give it more sympathetic processing when I get home.
(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10046/androm270808.jpg)
Mark - I'm jealous - you have certainly got tons of reprocessing to do when you get back...
Great shot & nice tight stars...
John
Quote6th clear night in a row at Riberac!
Thats nothing, we've just had our 107th cloudy night in a row, beat that. :lol:
I like the detail in the dust lanes,
I suppose thats the advantage of clear and unlight poluted skies.
Dont forget bring the clear skies when you return.
Fabulous, you can see the arms of the spiral.
You have a good Astronomical place down there Mark.
Carole
Nice one Mark. The stars are a bit elliptical - is that the way the subs have been stacked ?
I must admit it's always a bit depressing looking at the satellite images and seeing those clear skies just over the channel, at least someone is taking good advantage...
I'm jealous too, Mark!
Wow, that really is gorgeous, love the detail you've retained around the edge of the galaxy, so hard to see that without blowing out the core!
Thanks for the comments.
Ambient temperature was 18C. So I'm hoping this camera will produce some excellent results in the Winter ...
Really lovely image mark. Like the dust lanes.
Mark, can you now come home, please, we are envious of all these good images!
That reminds me, I really need to send off for a new passport and provisional driving license!!!
Processing this is still a work in progress. Raw data is 38 x 5min taken with a 300mm lens on the modified Canon EOS350D at F5.6
I need to get rid of those unsightly red haloes around the bright bloated stars. They do appear in each sub but I suspect they're due to some lens deficiency.
Other then that, I'm pretty much happy with both the overall colour balance and the detail/contrast in the dust lanes.
http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10046/andromv3.jpg
That's nice Mark. I intended to do it myself last night. Must have been mad setting up in a hurricane............& taking it down 20 minutes later! Could not get the DMK working with PHD anyway.
Fay
Yes, it was windy last night. At the Observing Evening we saw a lot of fast moving clouds (and it was chilly!).
Finally finished processing. This is about the best I can do. 1280x1024 so I can use it for desktop wallpaper 8)
(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10046/androm270808~0.jpg)
Nice one Mark - Very smooth in deed - must be dark skies... John
A great image Mark!
I said I'd finally finished processing but I was wrong - it was impossible to resist continuing to tinker with the image. I subsequently managed to tease out detail even further from the core. Will post tonight.
[Added Later] Forget it. After another couple of hours of tweaking and then comparing side by side it is actually no better ...