Andromeda Galaxy (M31)

[Bob Israel]

After so many cloudy nights, I finally got some clear skies last night. I've been wanting to capture the Andromeda Galaxy for some time. Last night it was in the western sky . . . a perfect vantage point from my backyard deck. The orientation of the galaxy was somewhat perpedicular to my camera's view. And while Celestron advises against rotating the camera in the Celestron Origin, I rotated it 90 degrees to get more of the galaxy in the shot. As it is, the outer edges are cropped out. Unfortunately, I don't have Mosaic mode. Supposedly it's coming.

As a result of the camera rotation, the resulting image had some weird lighting that I had to correct for in LRC and photoshop. Fortunately, I was able to even out the lighting and salvage the image.

Thoughts and comments always appreciated.

Celestron Origin (no filter)
1140 10s images for 3:15 hrs total integration
Stacked in Pixinsight
Processed in Pixinsight, Lightroom, Photoshop

 

[AlanLichty]

Amazing level of detail. Mosaic mode would be helpful at this level of magnification - I'd love to see the full width of this galaxy with this level of detail.

 

[Bob Israel]

Amazing level of detail. Mosaic mode would be helpful at this level of magnification - I'd love to see the full width of this galaxy with this level of detail.

I agree. It's nice knowing I can achieve this level of detail and perhaps more with better post processing techniques. Hopefully, mosaic mode hits in 2025 for this scope.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Bob,

This looks really good. Whatever the issues were it looks like you took care of them. Was it gradients that you had? How did rotating the camera cause it to have weird lighting?

You can do mosaics manually. M31 is pretty easy since you can usually just get it in 2 frames the left and the right. Then let Pixinsight assemble the 2 halves. But that is a bit of work. With the Seestar, I captured it just like you did, cutting off the edges of the galaxy. I did try a mosaic on it the other day, though it didn't complete. I should look at it though, maybe I can salvage it.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Great job!

ML