M31 - distant neighbours (Tom Gray)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Andromeda (And) · Contains: 35 nu. And · Andromeda Galaxy · HD3765 · HD4143 · HD4174 · HD4322 · HD4669 · HD4902 · M 110 · M 31 · M 32 · NGC 205 · NGC 206 · NGC 221 · NGC 224 · The star νAnd

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M31 - distant neighbours

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M31 - distant neighbours

This is my first attempt at a wide field image of M31 - the great Andromeda galaxy -and neighbours. I piggybacked my DSI III pro camera, coupled to a Pentax lens on my LX5 fork mount. Polar alignment was far from perfect, but my homemade autoguider managed to keep up, RMS just over 1".

This LRGB image was aligned, combined and normalised in Nebulosity, before processing in Startools as a single colour image, using default settings. There are a few artefacts and colour aberration from my old zoom lens. Tightening of stars and a couple of minor tracking defects were corrected.

With a total of 2 hours data, I am reasonably pleased with the outcome. It does not rival images taken through modern DSLRs or small wide-field APOs, but given this is kit from 1980-90s, I'm pretty happy. Just to have one good night under Bortle 2, moonless skies is a privilege, and opportunity to become acquainted with our distant neighbours.

Original
Final
B
C
D

B

Description: This is an LRGB version aligned and stacked in Nebulosity, then transferred to Startools for LRGB composition and processing. Which version do you prefer?

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: The 60m luminance frame.

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: This LRGB version was aligned and processed in Nebulosity v3. I am pleasantly surprised by the result, given this is the first time I have used this software for post-processing. The core is blown out but I found the scale adjustments easy to use to adjust background colour balance. I am seeing less colour aberration around the brighter stars. Sometimes less is more when faced with too many options.

Uploaded: ...

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

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3860246
PixInsight job	P89BQWL2O3WR6500RN2KZLQQZVSR2GJ7
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h44m35s.98
RA (top/left)	00h41m05s.39
RA (top/right)	00h52m36s.35
RA (bottom/right)	00h48m15s.90
RA (bottom/left)	00h36m31s.23

Dec (center)	+41°22′32″.1
Dec (top/left)	+40°00′00″.4
Dec (top/right)	+41°06′44″.6
Dec (bottom/right)	+42°44′44″.6
Dec (bottom/left)	+41°36′19″.6

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M31 - distant neighbours

M31 - distant neighbours

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M31 - distant neighbours

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