Andromeda Galaxy 9/1/22

[crimbfighter]

I am forever chasing my best Andromeda Galaxy. Its been a year since my last time imaging it. This time of year it is a prime target. This week had two really good nights, so I set out to image it both nights. Unfortunately, I ran into technical issues and after the first hour each night, the data became unusable. And of course it had to happen after I went inside to let it run... I intended to get 8 hours of image time on it, but ended up having to toss 7 of the 8 hours of data

In the end, this was what I salvaged from 1 hour of imaging time.

Technical info:
-18 exposures at 200 seconds each, ISO 800
-Dark, flat, and bias frames

-Celestron AVX mount
-Astro modified Nikon D610
-Nikon 200-500mm @ 500mm f/7.1

Catpture software:
-Backyard Nikon
-PHD2
-Celestron CPWI

Editing software:
-Deep Sky Stacker
-Photoshop CC

 

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day cf

It appears to be human nature to keep trying to do better .... and better

Your image is 1000% better than any of mine as I do not have any stars-locking-on equipment as you have used here ... so all I get are moving star trails. However this image seems more than okay to my eyes. Good blacks (dark bits) and well detailed light bits (Andromeda itself) so I'd reckon you could print this for your lounge room wall and have visitors drool anyway

Phil
ps- your 'tanner' sig link is not working

 

[crimbfighter]

G'day cf

It appears to be human nature to keep trying to do better .... and better

Your image is 1000% better than any of mine as I do not have any stars-locking-on equipment as you have used here ... so all I get are moving star trails. However this image seems more than okay to my eyes. Good blacks (dark bits) and well detailed light bits (Andromeda itself) so I'd reckon you could print this for your lounge room wall and have visitors drool anyway

Phil
ps- your 'tanner' sig link is not working

Thanks! And my apologies. I deactivated that website a year or so ago, but forgot to remove it from my signature. It's been corrected now. I wasn't getting the use out of it I thought I would, so the cost was no longer worth it. Cheers!

 

[Rickbb]

Nice shot! Astro is a real challenge for me, I can’t even get a moon shot I’m happy with. You guys doing deep sky stuff impresses the heck out of me.

 

[AlanKlein]

Nice shot. We can hardly see the sky where I live in NJ there's so much light pollution.

 

[jeffashman]

Really nice!

 

[crimbfighter]

Nice shot! Astro is a real challenge for me, I can’t even get a moon shot I’m happy with. You guys doing deep sky stuff impresses the heck out of me.

Thanks! I will say, the hobby of deep sky astrophotography is filled with many more failures than success. I can't count how many nights I sat outside most of the night having problem after problem and finally giving up woth nothing to show for it...

What kind of equipment and setting are you using to shoot the moon?

 

[crimbfighter]

Nice shot. We can hardly see the sky where I live in NJ there's so much light pollution.

Thank you! Light polution is such a sad and frustrating issue. So much of it can be mitigated if municipalities committed to it, but I get that it's not a priority for everyone. I usually use a light polution filter to cut down on a lot of it, but there is no perfect solution.

 

[crimbfighter]

Really nice!

Thank you!

 

[slat]

Very well done.

 

[MitchP]

Incredible! Of course it probably helped that it was a year closer to us (kidding)