An Astrofest Andromeda

[pmrid]

It was a popular target at Astrofest judging by the chatter. But not altogether an easy one. To image it, one had to start low (at about 14 degrees) at about 1 a.m., flip on the meridian at about 20 degrees and with luck, shoot until dawn (about 18 degrees in the west at 4 a.m.) So there was a lot of atmosphere to deal with and not a lot of time to do it with. I hope others fared better than I. My effort required quite a few subs to be rejected. Even so, I managed 2 hours worth of 5 minute subs with my AM5 rig - a SharpStar 94EDPH refractor reduced by 80% down to a FL of 420 ish, an Optalong L-Enhance filter and an ASI071MC-Pro.

Although I began to play with PixInsight, I still did not know it well enough to abandon DSS and Photoshop and here is the result. Enjoy.

[Dave882]

Great work Peter I reckon that’s come up really well!! Amazing the amount of Ha you’ve picked up as well.

[strongmanmike]

Excellent capture of an Astrofest must do object Peter :thumbsup:

Mike

[CharlieM]

Those halpha highlights are incredible considering they’re in a different galaxy.

[RobF]

Agree - that filter seems to have really made the Ha regions pop, bringing new life to the view Peter.

[h0ughy]

Nice, and sorry I missed meeting you this year. It was a hard target especially if you picked a spot on the field with the trees or chimney in the way

[petershah]

I imagine its not easy from your location....its a lovely rendition :thumbsup:

[Camelopardalis]

Nice one Peter! I only got about an hour of it, so you did better than I :)