M31 - Andromeda Galaxy in RGBSHO (MountainAir)

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy in RGBSHO

Behold, the mesmerizing beauty of the Andromeda Galaxy.

Each year, I cannot help myself but to capture Andromeda as it rises for the season. Ordinarily, taking images of the same target year after year would be a terrible waste of time, but I have found that every year my image is rather dramatically different. Sometimes, different telescopes, cameras or filters are used. Sometimes I focus on a specific wavelength. Sometimes I just process it differently. And of course, my processing skill improves each year.

Normally, I limit my galaxy targets to LRGB and HA. This year, instead of capturing luminance, I had just enough time between the weather (nearly 70 days apart) to capture OIII and even 8 hours of SII. I've lately been fascinated by these narrow-band regions in distant galaxies, and M31 does not disappoint. Unfortunately, I learned that at f/5.4 I need a lot more narrow-band data in order to do continuum subtraction without it becoming grainy -- and I was only just barely able to capture the huge OIII region behind HD3914 (visually near M32 in this image). It's also very difficult to get a good color balance with all that OIII -- early attempts seemed very blue/magenta.

I have three versions of this image. This one is the most realistic in terms of including RGBSHO bands, and has the most interesting targets to examine in detail, but I think the aesthetics of two other versions, without OIII, are better. I'm also working on one with a more-heavily-boosted continuum-subtracted HA background. Next year, I'll see what I can do about that spectacular OIII region I missed!

Final
Original
B
C

B

Title: HaRGBSII Version

Description: Before I was able to tame the purple hue from the OIII in the final version, I produced this HA/SII-only version that turned out surprisingly nice.

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: HaRGB

Description: Earlier in the season, I was able to capture RGB and a little HA. This version is the result of a quick edit while I was waiting for the weather to improve, but it came out quite well. It is the most natural of the three, though the HA regions came out a bit too-contrasty and saturated.

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8984106
PixInsight job	0T21M1A8JKS8AJP93A2L6WE0PBUDBKP0
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h42m44s.64
RA (top/left)	00h37m38s.21
RA (top/right)	00h37m41s.28
RA (bottom/right)	00h47m37s.65
RA (bottom/left)	00h48m01s.70

Dec (center)	+41°16′26″.5
Dec (top/left)	+42°43′45″.5
Dec (top/right)	+39°49′28″.7
Dec (bottom/right)	+39°48′13″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+42°42′27″.7

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