M31 - Andromeda Galaxy Mosaic (Marten Amschler)

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy Mosaic

Revision title: Improved Core

With my Starizona Nexus 0.75 it's finally possible to shoot M31. This magnificent DSO serves as a test object for my first mosaic. I shot 4 panels RGB (1h 45 each) over the course of one night, in order to test the general mosaic processing. Unfortunately it was full moon - but for a first test this is alright. But it was even more unfortunate that the moon was high up during exposure of the left segments and already gone during the exposure of the right segments

This lead to an unnecessary extra amount of post processing.
I thought about adding two more panels in the middle when the moon is gone... but I am just too impatient. Therefore I just gathered 2 panels worth of H-alpha and started my processing.

Overall I am satisfied the my first mosaic - even if I stumbled a lot of areas that I don't like in that image

(luckily I didn't sell my OSC... I think otherwise I wouldn't have done the effort with a Mono)

- - - - - UPDATE - - - - -
I stumbeled upon @Vadim Kozatchenko's M31, that describes how to improve the core: subtract the RED from the HALPHA channel to bring out the faint dust bands in the bright core. The result is less sharp but highlights those structures in the core better than ever before

Original
B
C
D
Final
E

B

Title: starless crop (improved core)

Description: destar: StarXTerminator
denoised: NoiseXTerminator
improved core details: scaled by RED-HALPHA subtracted data

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: mosaic planning

Uploaded: ...

D

Title: Andromeda compared to apparent Moon size

Uploaded: ...

E

Title: Improved Core

Description: I found a technique from @Vadim Kozatchenko, that describes how to improve M31's core: subtract the RED from the HALPHA channel to bring out the faint dust bands in the bright core. The result is less sharp but highlights those structures in the core better than ever before :)

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6426529
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