Central region of M31 from before DSC

[RobertM]

I grabbed this just after the Crescent but only just got around to processing it.

Sky 90@f/4.5 unguided with SXV-H9 binned 1x1, 10 x 60s Astronomik Luminance filter.



Robert

[Fay]

I really like that, Robert, lot of good rabbits coming out of the hat today! Just nice.

[Daniel]

Lovely image, those stars are nice and round for 60s unguided and so nice to see M31 coming round again, I did a test shot of it a few nights ago myself through the SCT at F10, so only really got the core, but was great to get some of those brown dust lanes coming through with the Ha mod on the camera finally.

Does anyone know how to bring out that blue-ish bit around the edge I always see on the professional astro photo's?

[MarkS]

Another great image - I'm amazed at the detail you can get with just 10min of data.  I suppose that's due to imaging at F4.5 with a decent cooled camera ...

[Rocket Pooch]

was that before the collimation was fixed?

[RobertM]

Yes Chris, before the collimation was fixed, the stars have the same flare towards the bottom right as in the NGC6888 image. I only sorted it out on Saturday and there's been no chance to get out since.

About 60s was all I could do without maxing out on the core but it needs slightly longer for the arms.  I think it's quite a tricky target to get spot on and having a small ccd chip doesn't help because of the size.  I was thinking of a mosaic but to do it properly will require a minimum of 4-6 frames of each LRGB+Ha each of 60 mins = 20-30 hours of imaging - that's probably all the clear nights of autumn with current weather patterns

[Mike]

Great image Robert.

[Carole]

Lovely image Robert.
Well done.

Carole

[Rocket Pooch]

what was the adu reading of the core?

[RobertM]

ADU of the core was 57000

[Rocket Pooch]

ok, can you e-mail me to stacked sub FITS file, I'll use an AIP feature on it....

[RobertM]

sent...

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi,

This is one I took last year, with 16x4 minute subs, there's less noise because of the number of subs.  and yes I need to get some imaging in, I know, maybe in a few weeks time.

[Fay]

Chris, stop showing off!

[Rocket Pooch]

No I'm not, but John did point out I keep forgetting to post my processed images, like this:



But seriously, I have learned more about processing this year than last because of the weather so some of my old images seem better now.