Finding something in a bright place.....

[JonH]

I thought I would start this as a separate thread as it is really a different subject of sorts...

I got a little bit tired of processing my M31 image so I decided to take a break and do some very rudimentary investigation into exactly how far into the core I have collected data.
I wish I was more intelligent and skilled at this kind of thing as might be able to do some proper analysis then!
If anyone does know anything about this I would love to hear from you!

This first image is simply a screen shot to demonstrate how smaller area of the core I am cropping the image down to, shown by the slightly hard to see box in the middle of the full size image.



Then this image is that cropped area enlarged and fiddled with to see if there was anything useful there.



As you can see it would appear there is data for what looks like 3 stars right in the core, naturally they become brighter and denser the further out from the centre you look.
I didn't really achieve anything threw doing this other than impress myself that I managed to find something in such a bright place!

[RobertM]

You can see that the actual core is very tiny and there is still some detail even that near the core plus you can still make out milky way stars.  Now the challenge is to get some of that detail out in your image.

Oh, and of course your guiding looks to be spot on

Robert

[JonH]

That is exactly my goal, when I zoom into my final image I want to be able to see those three little stars. Of course while preserving everything else in the image too...
The data is there right to the core so I see not theoretical reason why I can't have it all on show at once, of course theoretically and practically are VERY different things but I don't give up easily and knowing they are there I will never be fully happy with the final image unless they can been seen.

I think it is purely down to processing skill and compressing the dynamic range correctly, I fear I might be at this a while though!

[MarkS]

It's true - the core of the Andromeda galaxy is very small and sharp - very different to how most images (including my own!)portray it.