M31, M32 and M110 - data collected Sept 2021 @ RASC starparty

[Kanadalainen]

Sept 4, 2021 - (reprocessed May 10, 2022) data gathered at Spruce Woods Park, in the hinterlands of southern Manitoba at the darksite picked by our local club. All of us camped overnight and I set up my rig right beside my tent. Lots of interested folks dropped by to watch the set up. I had a lot of questions about the little Stellarvue scope and the onboard Raspberry Pi (ASIAir) to run things.

M31 is typically regarded as low hanging fruit by most of my earnest Galaxy specializing AP friends. This one joins the vast myriad of images of M31.

M31 is of course, one of our closest galactic neighbours. I took this one at the star party that happened at Spruce Woods park, Manitoba on the September long weekend in 2021 - Covid restrictions had loosened for us briefly in our part of Canada.

Conditions: Very humid, cool temps (7*C).
Seeing: Best I have ever experienced.
Transparency: Excellent.

Lots (!!) of dew to mess with the optics, but this evening provided was one of the best skies I have seen in my short life as an astrophotographer. Bortle 2 but with fantastic seeing - I had some of the highest star quality numbers seen while stacking in APP, a testament to how the gods quelled the disturbances that usually plague our latitude.

The entire evening was kicked off by a bino tour of the skies by our local guru Gerry ... who gave the group an amazingly detailed walk through Sagittarius (best visual of M8 I have ever seen - not to mention M7 - Ptolemy's cluster), other asterisms and constellations. Hats off to Gerry, the man is a walking encyclopedia of information.

Thanks for looking!

Clear skies, and your critical comments, advice, etc are always welcome.

Integration: 48 x 300 sec, Bin 1 x1, cooled @ -10*C, gain set at 100
Scope: Stellarvue 70 mm f6 apo triplet refractor
Imaging Cameras: ZWO 2600MC Pro
Mount: SkyWatcher NEQ6 PRO
Accessories: ASIair Pro · Stellarvue SFFR70APO flattener, reducer
Software: PS, SkySafari 6 Pro · Astro Pixel Processor APP · PixInsight
Guiding Telescopes Or Lenses: The Fat Kitty's tasco 60mm/360 mm doublet
Guiding: ZWO 290MM Mini - .7 RMS on average with the mount

Notes: I used GAME script in PI to seperate the galaxy and blend back stars.


Below I have enclosed an approximate rendition of the rig (no DSLR for this session) that I used at the time. The NEQ6 was sold to raise funds for yet another mount.

[messier 111]

very nice take , thx .

[Kanadalainen]

Thanks Jean-Yves!

[Makuser]

Hi Ian. A very nice reprocessed image of M31 and neighbors. Also, I especially enjoyed the annotated version and It looks like you had a great time at that RASC star party. Thanks for your well written report and photograph Ian, and the best of wishes for many clear night skies.

[Kanadalainen]

Hi Ian. A very nice reprocessed image of M31 and neighbors. Also, I especially enjoyed the annotated version and It looks like you had a great time at that RASC star party. Thanks for your well written report and photograph Ian, and the best of wishes for many clear night skies.

Thanks Marshall, the camping was fun, and very bare bones. What I like about this group is that the people are friendly - was offered some very nice perculated coffee the next morning by my neighbour. First time I have camped in our little two man tent since the kids were babies.

[STEVE333]

Nice capture. Some very nice details in the dust lanes.
Thanks for sharing the star party experience.

Steve

[BABOafrica]

I especially like the way you captured so much detail in the out "fuzzy" reaches of the galaxy.

BABO

[Kanadalainen]

Nice capture. Some very nice details in the dust lanes.
Thanks for sharing the star party experience.

Steve

Thanks Steve, I'll do this again next September.

[Kanadalainen]

I especially like the way you captured so much detail in the out "fuzzy" reaches of the galaxy.

BABO

Thank you!

[Juno16]

That really sounds like a fantastic time Ian!

Never been to and might never get to a star party, but it sure is nice to hear about the wonderful environment, both sky quality and social aspect.

Nice clean data! Looking forward to hearing about your upcoming visit!

[Jockinireland]

Nice image Ian. Sounds like a great event.

[Ylem]

Very Very nice Ian, love the dust lanes

[Kanadalainen]

That really sounds like a fantastic time Ian!

Never been to and might never get to a star party, but it sure is nice to hear about the wonderful environment, both sky quality and social aspect.

Nice clean data! Looking forward to hearing about your upcoming visit!

I don't attend too often, I think this is my third since 2016. To have been given a tour by one of the U of M profs with a speciality in astro was a great treat. That was the highlight for me.

[Kanadalainen]

Very Very nice Ian, love the dust lanes

Thanks Jeff, that was my goal - highlight those dust lanes. M31 has been a kind of internal benchmark target for me with various cameras, lenses, scopes.

Trying to do better with an image year to year is like a "revenge image" - trying to improve on a previous job not well done!

[Kanadalainen]

Nice image Ian. Sounds like a great event.

It was fun to be honest. I have to admit that most of my visual/AP is done with small groups or individually.

[Thefatkitty]

Great report Ian, and picture of M31 as well! I'm longing to get out to some dark sky sites, and like you I'll be doing it sans famille

Nice group you have there; Gerry sounds like a lot of fun! Also very happy that 60mm has worked for you; I never thought I'd see something I made riding on some Stellarvue quality!

Hoping you're all good there and that this year works out better for us all.

All the best mon ami,

[Kanadalainen]

Great report Ian, and picture of M31 as well! I'm longing to get out to some dark sky sites, and like you I'll be doing it sans famille

Nice group you have there; Gerry sounds like a lot of fun! Also very happy that 60mm has worked for you; I never thought I'd see something I made riding on some Stellarvue quality!

Hoping you're all good there and that this year works out better for us all.

All the best mon ami,

Every time I grab that little scope I think of the work you put into it. It has really served me well over these past two years! The optic is really nice too.