The New Andromeda Galaxy

[Jerry_Lodriguss (Jerry Lodriguss)]

Ok, so M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, has been around for a while. It’s not new.

But this image is new, I shot it on January 2, 2016.

http://www.astropix.com/M31.html

Click on the link to see a larger version with more information.

I shot it with a tiny Astro-Tech AT65EDQ refractor with just 65mm of aperture and 420mm of focal length at f/6.5.

The image has about one hour of exposure in the fainter outer portions and about another 30 minutes for some shorter exposures for the core that were used to create the High Dynamic Range (HDR) image you see here.

It was shot with an unmodified Canon T5i (700D) with no filters at ISO 800 with daylight white balance.

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Yikes! That's good Jerry!
Graz

[batema (Mark)]

Very nice indeed. Well done.

Mark

[IanP]

That is a very good shot, Jerry ..
Would it make much difference if the white balance was set up to AWB instead of Daylight

[skysailor (Peter)]

Wow, great shot... but then again you are in NJ so you're a lot closer to Andromeda than me so it's only to be expected ... heh heh
Seriously though - that's a very good shot - I'm impressed...and it gives me the shove in the back that I need to get out in my backyard and get "imaging"
cheers

[Atmos (Colin)]

Wonderful Andromeda with a DSLR

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Great shot Jerry. Those AT65EDQs are amazing little scopes. I'm starting to regret ever selling mine, especially since my HEQ5 (Sirius) mount handled it perfectly but struggles with the 6" F/5 I'm using now.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Terrific shot. Love the colors and details.

[Jerry_Lodriguss (Jerry Lodriguss)]

Originally Posted by IanP

That is a very good shot, Jerry ..
Would it make much difference if the white balance was set up to AWB instead of Daylight

Hi Ian, Thank you.

It would make a difference in the accuracy of the star colors if it was set to AWB instead of daylight white balance.

Jerry

[Jerry_Lodriguss (Jerry Lodriguss)]

Thanks everyone for your kind words and for taking a look!

Jerry

[cazza132 (Troy Casswell)]

Well done Jerry! Some really solid details in those dust lanes and good star colours!

[cazza132 (Troy Casswell)]

With my unmodded 6D, I have found that a colour temp of about 4200k-4500k works best. Daylight colour balance is about 5200k, which is a bit warm I have found personally. It is personal taste, but your result looks pretty good to me - blue in the outer regions and warmer tones at the core. A bit less luminance noise reduction (retain details) and a bit stronger chroma noise reduction in darker areas only (reduce colour blotches in background sky) would serve well.
A very good result, one of the better ones I have seen using a DSLR recently!