NGC 7331
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:46 pm
Here is my first attempt at imaging a galaxy. It is not perfect. My biggest mistake was reusing darks from the previous night when the ambient temperature was a couple degrees Fahrenheit cooler. I will never make that mistake again. I did not even check to see how different the sensor temperature was. Going forward I am going to keep a watchful eye on sensor temperature, and redo darks if it changes.
I know that I need more integration time but there are different ways of achieving that: (1) increase the exposure time and keep the number of subframes the same, or (2) increase the number of subframes but keep the exposure time the same, or (3) some combination of increased exposure time and increased number of subframes.
My first guess was to increase the exposure time. Unfortunately with an uncooled camera I think that I have already reached the point of diminishing returns. So my gut now tells me to keep the same 2 min exposure time but double the number of subframes.
Does that sound like a reasonable course of action? Thank you!
My image of NGC 7331 at AstroBin
I know that I need more integration time but there are different ways of achieving that: (1) increase the exposure time and keep the number of subframes the same, or (2) increase the number of subframes but keep the exposure time the same, or (3) some combination of increased exposure time and increased number of subframes.
My first guess was to increase the exposure time. Unfortunately with an uncooled camera I think that I have already reached the point of diminishing returns. So my gut now tells me to keep the same 2 min exposure time but double the number of subframes.
Does that sound like a reasonable course of action? Thank you!
My image of NGC 7331 at AstroBin