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M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 7:39 pm
by turfpit
Captured 8th Sept 2021 just after midnight.
Celestron AVX mount, Vixen 81s refractor, Altair 183C. Unguided, focus with Bahtinov Mask. SC 4.
Camera Settings: exposure=60s, gain=300, black level=30.
Lights 100x60s, darks 50, flats 50, bias 50. Astro Pixel Processor stack best 80 of 100, GIMP, Neat Image for mild denoise.

M31_100x60s_Altair183C.jpg
M31_100x60s_Altair183C.jpg (552.48 KiB) Viewed 1502 times

M31-single-light-frame-histogram.JPG
M31-single-light-frame-histogram.JPG (35.59 KiB) Viewed 1502 times

I managed to retain (not destroy during processing) the stars near the central core, so am happy with that. Just need some weather now to capture another ~200 frames.

Dave

Re: M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:23 pm
by Menno555
Nice one Dave. Central stars are indeed there.
M31 always is a balancing act, especially with slower telescopes.

Menno

Re: M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:01 pm
by turfpit
Thanks Menno. M31 is well placed for me this month. I want to try to push up my integration times. I have an Altair 183M that I could use to add some Ha frames as well.


Same camera, 3 years ago, some improvement:

_M31-Andromeda.jpg
_M31-Andromeda.jpg (388.59 KiB) Viewed 1475 times

Dave

Re: M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 1:58 pm
by timh
Hi Dave,

That is a massive improvement over the earlier one! Nice detailed image and colour. Weather seems to have been more of a problem this year than usual.

Tim

Re: M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2021 2:31 pm
by turfpit
Thanks Tim. I am keen to add another 2 sets of 100 frames to see the effect. This was captured at home (North East of Manchester) under Bortle 6 skies.

3 years ago my main processing skills were:
  • over stretch (because of poor data) and destroy colour
  • introduce large amounts of noise
The weather has been poor - I only got back to astro darkness in early August and opportunities have been few.

Dave

Re: M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:06 pm
by kometenmani
Hallo

Hast du die Daten der Kühlung , oder ist die Kamera Luftgekühlt

kometenmani

Re: M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:46 am
by turfpit
‎Do you have the data of the cooling, or is the camera air-cooled ‎
The Altair 183C has an internal fan which can be OFF/SLOW/FULL. It is not TEC cooled. The images were captured with the fan running at FULL speed.

Dave

Re: M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 9:34 am
by kometenmani
turfpit wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:46 am
‎Do you have the data of the cooling, or is the camera air-cooled ‎
The Altair 183C has an internal fan which can be OFF/SLOW/FULL. It is not TEC cooled. The images were captured with the fan running at FULL speed.

Dave
Danke für die schnelle Antwort habe mir die Kamera letzte Woche Gekauft , und versuche jetzt die ersten Astrobilder zu machen .

mfg Schneider M

Re: M31, 100x60s, Altair 183C

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:12 am
by turfpit
‎Thanks for the quick answer I bought the camera last week, and now try to make the first astro images.‎
Good luck, This viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2552 may help you get started.

Dave