M31: Andromeda Galaxy (Gary Crawford)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Andromeda (And) · Contains: Andromeda Galaxy · M 110 · M 31 · M 32 · NGC 205 · NGC 206 · NGC 221 · NGC 224

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M31: Andromeda Galaxy

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M31: Andromeda Galaxy

This is my first serious attempt at M31 (believe it or not) and my first complete project with the new Starfield Optics GEAR 80. I'm using the adjustable 0.8 reducer with it. I wish all reducers were adjustable.

I've tried to image M31 many times over the last year and a half but weather always shortened the time I had to image it). I imaged this time over 4 nights, two in a Bottle 1 area (Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada and two nights in my urban Bortle 8 backyard from Sept 9th to 18th. Murphy's law kicked in and I ended up with about 1/3 of the data I had hope to acquire. In the end I managed roughly 6 hours of data.

18 x 180 sec, 61 x 100 sec, 46 x 120 sec, 62 x 90 sec. (5.7 hrs total integration)

For one of the evenings I used the LPS-D3 filter otherwise no filters used. I processed the resulting image entirely in PixInsight: using methods learned from Masters of Pixinsight (Ron Brecher, Warren Keller, Peter Proulx). Execution has more to do with me than with their teaching skills....

Calibrated with WBPP 2.2, Normalized Scale Gradient script, then integrated, Dynamic Crop, Dynamic Background Extraction (DBE), Colour Calibration, SCNR, extracted Luminance channel, both RGB and L: MLTDenoise, RGB and L Masked Stretched, L stars corrected using Adam Block's artifact reduction method, LRGBCombine, DarkStructureEnhance script, subtly sharpened major structures in galaxy (Unsharp Mask), TGVDenoise, LHE, ColourSaturation, MFT for star reduction, ICCProfileTransfornation.

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
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Star trails
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Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	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

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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.
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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	5026021
PixInsight job	VEK1RMGXVTBVS0XDQZRUDQ3LMOVEG8R1
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	00h42m30s.30
RA (top/left)	00h48m46s.50
RA (top/right)	00h49m14s.62
RA (bottom/right)	00h36m01s.23
RA (bottom/left)	00h35m57s.92

Dec (center)	+41°12′49″.2
Dec (top/left)	+40°08′14″.9
Dec (top/right)	+42°12′31″.0
Dec (bottom/right)	+42°16′09″.2
Dec (bottom/left)	+40°11′41″.4

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M31: Andromeda Galaxy

M31: Andromeda Galaxy

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Image Index:

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M31: Andromeda Galaxy

M31: Andromeda Galaxy

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