M31 - the Great Andromeda Galaxy (Tom Gray)

M31 - the Great Andromeda Galaxy

Revision title: 2x2 binned, StarNet star reduction

My second attempt at capturing this majestic galaxy. The first failed as a result of very poor flats. Dodging the clouds, and a rain shower, I managed to get just about enough data to post this image.

M31 is a firm favourite with all astronomers and astrophotographers. Visible to the naked eye, this grand spiral lies 2.4 mLY away, spans 260,000 light years and contains a trillion stars. it is accompanied by two companion dwarf galaxies M32 and M110.

This wider field was taken with a Pentax SLR zoom lens ~160mm focal length at f5.6 attached to my Altair 183 OSC. You can see the spikes from stopping down the iris around the brighter stars, but this gives a much sharper image.

just under 2.5 hours data captured the disk, brighter star clouds and contrasting dust lanes (as in the original), but subsequent 2x2 binning pushes up the SNR showing some of the fainter glow surrounding the disk (final revision). At a resolution of 5 “/Px I’m pretty happy with the result.

Captured using Stellarmate EKOS, with manual focusing, and autoguided with PHD2, I calibrated the data in ASTAP, processed in Siril using StarNet to remove the stars, and Astrosharp to pull out some of the detail. I tried to keep the colour natural, but there is not much saturation with such a short integration.

Original
Final
B
C

B

Title: 2x2 binned, StarNet star reduction

Description: Binning the small 2.45 micron pixels on my Altair 183C OSC works well to boost SNR and brings out more of the halo surrounding this magnificent galaxy.

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Bin 1x1 with more saturation

Description: Bin 1x1 with more saturation, and the 'right' way up for @udeuterm :)

Uploaded: ...

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
Low-Cost Astrophotography
UK Astro-Imaging
Messier Objects

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	S244KZT3ZEH0SQ67XW6STKICQV3GRUIT
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h43m37s.46
RA (top/left)	00h49m45s.33
RA (top/right)	00h30m54s.71
RA (bottom/right)	00h37m52s.69
RA (bottom/left)	00h56m14s.40

Dec (center)	+41°21′15″.2
Dec (top/left)	+43°27′24″.5
Dec (top/right)	+41°30′50″.0
Dec (bottom/right)	+39°14′11″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+41°06′35″.7

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