[Mickoid (Michael)]

2022 here in Victoria, along with some other States, will be remembered as a tough year for astrophotography. M31 has been an annual pilgrimage and maybe one year it will provide everything I need to capture a good image. This season the weather and moon phases have not coincided to create that ideal night to head out and give it a go. Thursday night was the last and only chance I got to capture some data and hopefully get lucky. Well a new moon was a good start but intermittent cloud passing with only a maximum of around 1 1/2 hours of useful visibility above the horizon made it tough to achieve. The forecast proved correct, so with that in mind I didn't bother with any serious gear. So these 44 x 1 min subs @3200 iso was the best I could manage with a modded Canon 550d and a Tamron 500mm f8 Mirror lens on an iOptron Skytracker Pro. A difficult target anytime from the southern part of Victoria made more difficult by a less than ideal year.