M31, uncalibrated, Manche, France, 2018-11-02

[The Thing]

Taken with each sub interspersed with a minimum exposure time sub, this seems to have fixed the blotch problem I've been having with this camera. Also I tried out a new capture program, N.I.N.A. - Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy and it is most excellent. I was able to use it in about an hour of installing it, sequences are a doddle, mosaics are a doddle, platesolve, focuses as part of a sequence with all the options, full PHD2 integration, meridian flip handling. Very nice. Easier more logical interface than APT.

This is 34mins of data, 120s subs, gain 120, offset 55, temp -16c. No darks, flats, darkflats, offset/bias (which is what StarTools likes). I took a set of flats etc. but the flats overcorrect terribly for some reason, the darks aren't dark (taken at night with blackout cover on the whole scope!) and all the calibration I try  in DSS or PixInsight is a mess.

[The Thing]

BTW For NINA you have to download and install the image browser images separately and set the location of the unzipped images in the Settings (bottom icon left). Foxed me to start with.

[MarkS]

A wonderful field of view and lovely detail in that!

Colours are slightly off though.

Mark

[ApophisAstros]

Good detail.
Not sure if NINA does 2 camera synched dithering as APT does and to be honest if it aint broke dont fix it as APT ticks all the boxes for me, still good luck with it.
Roger

[NoelC]

Lovely image Duncan.
Following your progress with this camera with interest.
What's happening in the top left corner? is that due to nearing the edge of the field of view?
NINA looks interesting - quite ASI aligned?

Noel

[JohnP]

Nice Duncan - Lovely & smooth - As Mark points out colours not quite right & seems to be quite a prominent blue haze in top half.. Anyway looking good - John

[The Thing]

Thanks Mark. I moved the primary back as far as it would go on its collimation adjustment and it seems to have made a huge difference to the detail I'm getting and the speed of the scope.


I'll blame it on the win10 night screen function. I did compare it with images on the web and there is such variation and quite a few close to this, so I went with it. Not sure about the blue haze, there are examples of M31 with lots of blue but its more widespread around the disc. Dunno.

[RobertM]

That looks very good Duncan and well framed.  The hot blue stars in NGC206 are almost resolved though you do seems to have a tilt issue (to my eyes anyway) top left to bottom right (or vikky versa).  I'm also not sure about the blue haze on the galaxy being right or wrong, could it be an artifact of gradient elimination ?

Also been looking over N.I.N.A.  I think it must be the most fully featured astronomy program I've never heard of !!!  Might take more of a look if I get the time.  Where did you find it ?

Robert

[The Thing]

Yes, definite tilt issue, now hopefully resolved by reseating the komakorr in the focuser properly. The devil is in the detail. And the blue could be either one.

I Googled astro capture programs as a guy on Cloudy Nights wanted an APT alternative as he was switching from DSLR. 

[MarkS]

Also been looking over N.I.N.A.  I think it must be the most fully featured astronomy program I've never heard of !!!  Might take more of a look if I get the time. 

Ditto.

Mark

[Carole]

Glad you have sorted out your blotch problem. 

Nice FOV, nice round stars, nice capture, but I agree with others that the colour is somewhat wrong.  You are having a rough time with your calibration files, have you thought about trying a different stacking programme?

What post processing software do you use Duncan?

Carole

[The Thing]

Glad you have sorted out your blotch problem. 

Nice FOV, nice round stars, nice capture, but I agree with others that the colour is somewhat wrong.  You are having a rough time with your calibration files, have you thought about trying a different stacking programme?

What post processing software do you use Duncan?

Carole

Thanks Carole,

I use DSS v4 and StarTools at the moment, I also use Pixinsight. Same problems with both. I then use Gimp 2.10+ which handles 32 bit pictures now for finishing including final colour balance. I think I need corrective eye filters to get my colour balance sorted first!

[Fay]

well done Duncan, nice M31, will be having a look at NINA as well........