M31 First Image in a while

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nexusjeep
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:01 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

M31 First Image in a while

#1

Post by nexusjeep »

Well been quite a while since I imaged anything so got out on Sunday evening and fired everything up after a few issues got everything running and had a reasonable session so collected 284 1 mins subs and then used the best 240 of these by quality in Astro Pixel Processor, which I need to look at some tutorials on as forgotten how to use most of the settings and there are also some new additions so youtube will be the next stop I think :).

Used the Autofocus routine every thirty minutes which works well in SharpCap and watched the live stack build up this time remembering to shoot a flat before starting so overcame the bright centre in the image as the stack developed and that worked well.

Info of kit and setting below, think the image can be made better once I re-learn the options in APP :D final tweaks for a bit more vibrance / saturation and a bit more contrast carried out in Affinity Photo.

Imaging kit : APM-LZOS 130/780 + 0.75x MR reducer / flattener, ASI2600MC-Pro + Esatto 4" Focuser
Mount : M-UNO Synscan
Guide : Skywatcher ED72Pro+0.8x reducer Altair 290M guide camera
Software: SharpCap, GSS Mount control software, PHD2, Stellarium, AstroPixelProcessor, Affinity Photo 1.9

Image 240 x 60s at 100g -10C / 25 Darks / 100 Flats / 100 Bias

Image2022.11.13 M31 Andromeda-Tweaked 240 1min by Nick Davis, on Flickr

Thanks For Looking

Cheers
Nick
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admin
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Re: M31 First Image in a while

#2

Post by admin »

Hi Nick,

a very nice image :) I do know what you mean about forgetting the steps for using software like APP (or worse, PI) when you haven't used it for a while.

Have you upgraded to Affinity Photo 2 yet? I see that it is now available, but haven't had time to look into whether it is a big improvement on 1.x.

cheers,

Robin
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Menno555
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Re: M31 First Image in a while

#3

Post by Menno555 »

Lots of detail here Nick!
I like the high visibility of the star forming regions in the arms.

Menno
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nexusjeep
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:01 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Re: M31 First Image in a while

#4

Post by nexusjeep »

Thanks Robin / Menno was quite pleased how it turned out as it was the first go after a bit of a hiatus.

Robin looked at the promotional videos by James Ritter their product expert for Affinity Photo 2.0 and there looks to be some interesting new features so will probably look to upgrade to it especially as it is reduced at the moment by 40%.

Cheers
Nick
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timh
Posts: 515
Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2019 5:50 pm

Re: M31 First Image in a while

#5

Post by timh »

Agree with Menno- I am quite jealous of the fact that you seem to have picked up a lot of the HA without even resorting to an HA filter, To get that I usually have to add HA back into the RGB image. Nice work

Tim
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