3000km for my fist M31

[Drac0 (Mark)]

Headed north for a couple of weeks with the plan of capturing a couple of targets that don't get much above the horizon down here. It ended up being a 3000km round trip to a little place called Proston in QLD which provided lovely dark skies.

One of the targets was the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) & its companions M32 & M110. Down here it doesn't even get to 15° above the horizon and with trees & hills to the north you get very limited time through a lot of atmosphere. A much better proposition from Proston.

Gear:
Saxon 102mm triplet @ F5.6 (SvBony 0.8x flattener/reducer)
Canon 6D (stock)
SW EQ6-R Pro
Guide scope: 50mm Orion Mini w/ASI120mm-S

Software:
Astro Photography Tool (APT) v4.26
PHD2, EQMOD
Pre-processed in Adobe Camera RAW (version 1)
Stacked with Sequator (version 1)
Stacked with ASTAP (version 2)
Processed with PhotoShop

[Mickoid (Michael)]

Really nice result Mark. That extra mileage north makes a world of difference, the detail you've picked up is fantastic. I've always been puzzled why this galaxy hasn't been more popular with our northern IIS members considering the result you can achieve from there. Well done! How long were your exposures/ integration time? By the way, was there any reason why your imaged flipped?

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

That's a very nice Andromeda Mark, long way to go to capture it though. Could you let us in on the capture details, sub length, how many, etc.
I did image M31 a few years ago from a dark site near Goulburn that has clear northern horizons but further north would certainly help in that regard.

[oska (John)]

Fantastic Mark, they're both good in their own ways. If I were to choose I'd go with the palette from 1 with the saturation of 2. Very well done.

[carlstronomy (Carl)]

Mark , very nice indeed. Wonderful detail and colour!!

[AstroViking (Steve)]

What the others have said - a pair of great images!

[xelasnave]

A magnificent job...well done.

alex

[ChrisV (Chris)]

That's real nice. Much better than bringing back a nasty sunburn from a QLD holiday !!

[Bodon (Steve)]

Wow Mark, really nice!

[Dave882 (David)]

Amazing effort and an excellent result!! Love the detail in the dust lanes and nice colour too.

[Drac0 (Mark)]

Thanks everyone.

[Drac0 (Mark)]

Originally Posted by Saturnine

That's a very nice Andromeda Mark, long way to go to capture it though. Could you let us in on the capture details, sub length, how many, etc.
I did image M31 a few years ago from a dark site near Goulburn that has clear northern horizons but further north would certainly help in that regard.

Hi Jeff,

I'll try to work through the details, I have a number of different versions stacked in different programs (ASTAP, Sequator & DSS) & with different editing processes for each so it's a little confusing.

All subs were 150 seconds @ ISO 1600 - I probably should have done longer exposures but don't often pull out the DSLR & had never used the 6D for DSO. There was also 32 x darks, 30 x flats & 50 x bias used for calibration.

Version 1 (Sequator) is 36 subs after removing any I wasn't happy with.

Version 2 included all subs with a final count of 61 (85%) of the 72 taken being used by ASTAP.

Attached is a third version, this one stacked with DSS (36 subs). Was trying to see which worked best.

Cheers,
Mark

[Drac0 (Mark)]

Originally Posted by Mickoid

How long were your exposures/ integration time? By the way, was there any reason why your imaged flipped?

Se above for the details. As for the image orientation, no particular reason, I just like it.

Cheers,
Mark

[JimmyAstro (Helen and James)]

Wow Mark,

I love this image, I would really like to capture Andromeda as a target. But, 3000km travel - that's extreme commitment!

Great image, can't wait to start myself.

Regards

JA