M31 - binned, cropped and combined (Tom Gray)

M31 - binned, cropped and combined

Revision title: RGB -UHC-L booster

Here I combined data from the only two clear nights I’ve enjoyed recently. Usually I post these as revisions, however this image has a number of firsts for me, and warrants its own entry.

I managed to salvage some data from the first night, noticeably sharper with better HFD values, allowing 300s exposures, which I combined giving a total integration just shy of six hours. This allowed me to stretch the colour saturation a little more.

I also managed to get EKOS internal guider working for the first time - using multi star SEP (default) algorithm, it gave results comparable with PHD2. I need to play with the settings to see if I can improve R.A. RMS ~0.9.

Finally, I used the crop and rotate tool in Siril to compose the final frame - heavily cropped due to a completely different camera angle between nights, after repairing my homemade lens adapter. A useful tool for cropping out the borders, if unconventional orientation.

To the image - the iris spikes and colour aberrations in this old and slow SLR lens are obvious, but the longer exposures pull out some more colour and detail, I hope without overdoing it!

Original
B
C
Final
D

B

Title: Binned 1x1, star reduction, little more saturation

Description: Thanks to a prompt from @wsg I've reduced the stars and used more ASINH transformation to boost the saturation a little. I've also left the cropped data at bin 1x1, increasing the resolution slightly. I think I prefer this over the binned version.

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Processed in Nebulosity v4

Description: I'm impressed what simple stretch and curves achieve - Nebulosity does this well for galaxies, and the star reduction tool helps to tame the starfield. Stars are a little magenta, but the star clouds show up better.

Uploaded: ...

D

Title: RGB -UHC-L booster

Description: A further 35x180s subs collected 11 Dec 2023 using my Baader UHC-L booster filter - combined and processed in Siril. Heavily cropped due to 45 degree rotation of camera between sessions. A little more saturation in the blue star clouds, and perhaps a hint of nebulosity.

Uploaded: ...

Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
UK Astro-Imaging
Messier Objects
Camera Lens Astrophotography

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8896635
PixInsight job	TMPDG8AOWV6082P09CC254Q96HAP99TQ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h42m32s.50
RA (top/left)	00h46m41s.81
RA (top/right)	00h33m40s.58
RA (bottom/right)	00h38m33s.78
RA (bottom/left)	00h51m21s.15

Dec (center)	+41°23′43″.9
Dec (top/left)	+42°52′18″.8
Dec (top/right)	+41°31′44″.2
Dec (bottom/right)	+39°54′39″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+41°13′11″.2

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):