Yet another M31

[MarkS]

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.

[JohnP]

Mark - I'm jealous - you have certainly got tons of reprocessing to do when you get back...

Great shot & nice tight stars...

John

[Mac]

6th clear night in a row at Riberac!

Thats nothing, we've just had our 107th cloudy night in a row, beat that.

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.

[Carole]

Fabulous, you can see the arms of the spiral.

You have a good Astronomical place down there Mark.

Carole

[RobertM]

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...

[Fay]

I'm jealous too, Mark!

[Daniel]

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!

[MarkS]

Thanks for the comments.

Ambient temperature was 18C.  So I'm hoping this camera will produce some excellent results in the Winter ...

[Mike]

Really lovely image mark. Like the dust lanes.

[Fay]

Mark, can you now come home, please, we are envious of all these good images!

[Daniel]

That reminds me, I really need to send off for a new passport and provisional driving license!!!

[MarkS]

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

[Fay]

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

[MarkS]

Yes, it was windy last night.  At the Observing Evening we saw a lot of fast moving clouds (and it was chilly!).

[MarkS]

Finally finished processing.  This is about the best I can do.  1280x1024 so I can use it for desktop wallpaper