TheSkySearchers

I was blessed with the 12th and 13th clear night of the year last Thursday and Friday. A much welcomed cool front passed through Thursday brought the nighttime temperatures into the mid 60’s F.
Its easy to keep track of the clear nights when there are so few!

Second light with my Sharpstar 61 EDPHII and I captured about 10 hours on the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).

I was blessed with the 12th and 13th clear night of the year last Thursday and Friday. A much welcomed cool front passed through Thursday brought the nighttime temperatures into the mid 60’s F.
Its easy to keep track of the clear nights when there are so few!

Second light with my Sharpstar 61 EDPHII and I captured about 10 hours on the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).



Imaging Info:

Telescope: Sharpstar 61 with a 0.8 FR/FF (fl=270mm) FR=4.4
Camera: ASI 533 mc-pro (osc)
Filter: IDAS LPS-D1 lp filter to help with the strong sodium vapor neighborhood lighting (one in front of my house).

Software: Captured with N.I.N.A. 60 second subs (about 600 of them) at 104 gain
PHD2
Processed in Pixinsight with a small nudge in PS Camera Raw.

I think that 30 second subs would have been more appropriate. My delta ADU between lights and darks was just over 800. Usually, I shoot a delta ADU of 100-200.

Even with 60 second subs, Pixinsight’s WBPP (registering/calibrating) chewed on the 600 or so subs for over two hours (my pc is a few years old, but it’s a Ryzen 7 2800x with 32g ddr4).

I am really enjoying using this little scope!

Please share any thoughts or ideas. I have a few of my own for the next process.

Thanks for looking!

Thats gorgeous Jim. So glad you got some clear sky..

magnificent image , thx .

Beautiful image Jim.

Well done Jim, that is a fine image indeed. Satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are nicely captured, as is the star cloud NGC 206 within M31. The dark lanes are prominent and very detailed within M31 and you also captured some of obscuring dust within M110 as well. Ver nice!

Very nice detail, Jim, with some nice crisp processing and colors. If I were to quibble about anything it would be the red tint to the central region. A yellower take would be more my cup of tea. This one falls under the category of personal preference more than any technical complaint. Maybe the sodium filter leached out some of the natural color?

Bob

Nice Jim, you were able to get it to all fit into one frame.... Crunching 600 frames definitely will give a PC a workout... Good thing you didn't need to run the NSG script.

Jockinireland wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 8:52 pm Thats gorgeous Jim. So glad you got some clear sky..

Thanks David. It felt great to be imaging. Even though I have a significant amount of lp, the front brought in some of the nicest skies that I have seen in awhile.

It is fun having the challenges of a new setup. I am still amazed how well N.I.N.A. works for me.

messier 111 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 9:19 pm magnificent image , thx .

Thanks M111!

AstroBee wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 9:23 pm Beautiful image Jim.

Much appreciated AB!

kt4hx wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 9:48 pm Well done Jim, that is a fine image indeed. Satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are nicely captured, as is the star cloud NGC 206 within M31. The dark lanes are prominent and very detailed within M31 and you also captured some of obscuring dust within M110 as well. Ver nice!

Thank you Alan! It is really amazing the beauty of the night sky and what is there beyond the eye's reach. Thank you buddy!

bobharmony wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 10:53 pm Very nice detail, Jim, with some nice crisp processing and colors. If I were to quibble about anything it would be the red tint to the central region. A yellower take would be more my cup of tea. This one falls under the category of personal preference more than any technical complaint. Maybe the sodium filter leached out some of the natural color?

Bob

Thanks Bob!

Understood about the reddish core area. I really cannot say that the color is related to the filter, but probably more so my personal preference in processing. I do get a bit carried away and this is probably just my "coloration".

I am going to make another run at processing the data again soon. I found out something very interesting about the image registration in Pixinsight that I was doing incorrectly (including for this image). I thought that I had an issue and made corrections in the settings that actually slightly reduced the image resolution. Strange issue, but really shows the difference between PI and DSS calibrated images. If you or anyone are interested, I can share in detail.

I appreciate your nice comments and your honest critique. Very much appreciated and helpful!

starfield wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 11:13 pm Nice Jim, you were able to get it to all fit into one frame.... Crunching 600 frames definitely will give a PC a workout... Good thing you didn't need to run the NSG script.

Thank you Steve! Yes, one frame! Of course, if I had a bigger sensor, even more fov. Buying a new scope was definately cheaper than buying a ASI2600 pro.

No, I am aware of the NSG script, but I haven't tried it yet. Being a PI user, you can identify with what I was mentioning to Bob in the previous post. I thought that I had an issue and posted to the PI forum a few days ago. They answered me today and I had it all wrong! See https://pixinsight.com/forum/index.php? ... ars.17172/ if you have a chance. I am a slow learner!

Nice one Jim!

That is a wonderful image Jim!

Wonderful image! Very well done, Jim!!

Congratulations Jim on having your image selected as todays TSS APOD!

app.php/article/9-15-2021-tss-astrophot ... of-the-day

Thank you Gordon!

Thank you Alan @kt4hx for the nomination!

Juno16 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 6:31 pm Thank you Gordon!

Thank you Alan @kt4hx for the nomination!

Very well deserved buddy.

That's awesome Jim!
And congratulations on the well deserved APOD!

Hi Jim. An excellent M31 Andromeda Galaxy image. Excellent contrast and spiral arm details in your capture as well as some other NGC neighbors too. Thanks for taking the time to put this up on here for us to enjoy Jim, and congratulations on the well deserved TSS APOD Award today.

Incredible image Jim.

That is really Great Jim! Thanks for sharing and Congrats on the APOD!

That's spectacular. Absolutely gorgeous shot.