M31 core in Bortle 4 (Tom Gray)

M31 core in Bortle 4

With cloud forecast inland, I was fortunate to be able to take advantage of clear skies along the coast after dropping my loon at the station in Stonehaven, and, of course, another legendary fish supper! I found a quiet site at Crawton a tiny hamlet down the coast and site of the Fowlsheugh bird reserve, and set up for the night.

A lot of moisture in the air again, and without any dew heaters, I struggled to keep this at bay with my tiny 12v hairdryer. That and limited power to my laptop curtailed my imaging session, ending up with just 22 x 5min guided exposures. I calibrated and processed these with APP, and was rather pleased with the final image, which has good depth and I feel conveys something of the enormity of this neighbouring grand spiral, estimated to contain 1 trillion stars.

It would have been good to have the opportunity to complete a mosaic, but would have required at least 3 panels to capture this great galaxy in full, at this focal length. At 2.2 million light years from earth, Andromeda is easily visible under a dark sky, as a fuzzy glow to the naked eye - amateur instruments reveal something of the glory of this grand spiral, and space telescopes resolve it into individual stars.

The last of my images from dark, if rather cloudy skies, as I head south and back to work - exhausted but privileged to have witnessed the majesty of the cosmos.

[Postscript - this image was taken at ~350mm focal length using my Meade f6.3 reducer]

B

Title: A boost in contrast and saturation

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Calibrated in APP, processed in Startools v1.8

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D

Title: Combined core - 22 x 300s and 49 x 120s = total 208m (3.4 hr)

Uploaded: ...

E

Title: Processed in SiRIL 1.06

Description: Stretch, colour calibration and deconvolution in SiRIL 1.06 with star tightening and GreyCstoration in Nebulosity 4 to finish. Not much to choose between this and my final image, but colour more accurate and I think the background a bit better.

Uploaded: ...

F

Title: Starless version - mono using astrosharp tool

Description: Playing around with Mark Lowry's excellent Astrosharp app

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