Andromeda, untracked

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

While camping at Jimna State Forest last week, I braved the -3 degree temperatures and got up at 4:30 am to try and capture the Andromeda Galaxy. The skies were nice and dark, and M31 was very clearly visible to the naked eye.

I don't have a tracking mount, so I decided to have a go at stacking multiple 6 second exposures taken with my 50D and Tamron 90mm macro lens at f/2.8 and 3200 iso. This is 31 x 6 seconds, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using Lightroom. Obviously the result would be far better if it was tracked, but I was able to pick up a little bit of detail in the spiral arms doing it this way.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Stephen

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Nice. I must have a go at this when I get my GPS unit.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

who would have though you could get something that good without tracking - top effort.

[TimberLand (Justin)]

Now do that with an old film SLR. Nice work.

[Regulus (Trevor)]

You have to be happy with that Stephen. There is dust lane detail! That was worth the effort.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks Kevin, Ray, Justin and Trevor! It was nice to be able to pick up a bit of detail using such a basic setup.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Octane (Humayun)]

Extreme imaging! Lovely.

H

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks H! It's a reflection of how dark the skies were at the time!

Cheers,
Stephen

Originally Posted by Octane

Extreme imaging! Lovely.

H

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Lovely Stephen! Amazing that it's a bunch of 6 second exposures and not on a tracking mount

[MortonH]

Wow. Impressive.

Imagine if you'd taken 30-second subs with a Polarie...

[astronobob (Bob)]

Top notch result with your application Stephen, looking real natural mate - well done

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks Dunk, Morton and Bob! Yes, I would have loved to have had a Polarie while at Jimna, Morton! One of these days...

Cheers,
Stephen