M31 with a 135mm - hints of dust lanes

[Kanadalainen]

October 7, 2019

I have 20 subs at 35 seconds, ISO 800, Canon 60D, stopped down to f5, used the moon to focus and then used gaffer's tape to clamp the focus.
Lens: Rokinon 135mm f2 ED
Mount: IOptron SGP

The cr2 raw data was organized in Bridge.
Each sub was preprocessed in Photoshop CC, eg, for stacking and alignment: then to Lightroom CC, for some noise reduction, and a tone curve. Exported as a .jpg.

M110 and M32 provide the usual sideshow.

Thanks for looking,

Ian

[Kanadalainen]

I just noticed that conversion to a jpg seemed to give the image some graininess.

I have another 40 subs that I will incorporate later this week, and perhaps smooth it out.

Ian

[Juno16]

Really cool image Ian!

Imaging is so gratifying! I know that you are having fun with this and I am too watching your images come in.

Looking forward to your new stack!

Thanks,
Jim

[Kanadalainen]

Thanks Jim! My main tiff image is smoother , but its 58 megs in size.

[EAGLE 5]

I just noticed that conversion to a jpg seemed to give the image some graininess.

I have another 40 subs that I will incorporate later this week, and perhaps smooth it out.

Ian

I noticed that too when I zoom it, kind of like ice crystals forming on a window.

[Hankmeister3]

Thanks for proving (again) telephoto imaging can be fun and rewarding. Nice job, Ian, on imaging M31. I hope to do that soon with my 200mm Canon EF-L telephoto. I'll post the results when I do. I'll have to wait until dear ol' Luna vacates the sky.

BTW, I've never heard of the Gaffer's Tape brand focus lock. Is that possibly similar to my Gorilla Duct Tape brand focus lock for night-time use on terrestrial telephoto lenses?

[Seawolfe]

That's a very nice shot, keep it up! :Clap:

[Kanadalainen]

I just noticed that conversion to a jpg seemed to give the image some graininess.

I have another 40 subs that I will incorporate later this week, and perhaps smooth it out.

Ian

I noticed that too when I zoom it, kind of like ice crystals forming on a window.

Exactly, but the tiff is nice and smooth, particularly in the halo. I will read more about uploading restrictions etc on files, see what I can do. Its not insurmountable.

[Kanadalainen]

Thanks for proving (again) telephoto imaging can be fun and rewarding. Nice job, Ian, on imaging M31. I hope to do that soon with my 200mm Canon EF-L telephoto. I'll post the results when I do. I'll have to wait until dear ol' Luna vacates the sky.

BTW, I've never heard of the Gaffer's Tape brand focus lock. Is that possibly similar to my Gorilla Duct Tape brand focus lock for night-time use on terrestrial telephoto lenses?

Thank you Hankmeister,

I found the Gaffer's astro focus lock tape in the DIY section, just beside Gorilla brand role. Its lovely that Home Depot is so accomodating and willing to help astrophotographers.

Other thoughts...which crowd the mind of someone getting their feet wet:

I honestly think the sweet spot for this D60 is at around ISO 1600, and perhaps I will accumulate more data @ 60 seconds when the clouds and rain abate.

[Don Quixote]

I like it, Ian.
Thank you for posting this WIP !

[MariusD69]

Very nice! Well done!

[Kanadalainen]

Very nice! Well done!

Thanks Marius, much appreciated!

[Kanadalainen]

I like it, Ian.
Thank you for posting this WIP !

Cheers man!

[bladekeeper]

Exactly, but the tiff is nice and smooth, particularly in the halo. I will read more about uploading restrictions etc on files, see what I can do. Its not insurmountable.

Hi Ian,

Whenever I have a big honker of an image like that (such as a lunar mosaic), I will upload the TIF to Flickr and post here via link or img tags. Flickr allows your first 1000 images free and they've yet to squawk at me for image size. Just a thought for your consideration.

[Kanadalainen]

Exactly, but the tiff is nice and smooth, particularly in the halo. I will read more about uploading restrictions etc on files, see what I can do. Its not insurmountable.

Hi Ian,

Whenever I have a big honker of an image like that (such as a lunar mosaic), I will upload the TIF to Flickr and post here via link or img tags. Flickr allows your first 1000 images free and they've yet to squawk at me for image size. Just a thought for your consideration.

Thanks Bryan! Good idea... I will sign up.

Ian

[Kanadalainen]

Here is a link to a hosted site image:

[Thefatkitty]

Now that's the stuff... Well don Ian!

[Stuart]

You stack in photoshop? You must have the patience of a saint! Why not use a stacking program like DSS or something? It'll make your job much easier!

It's a nice image given the short subs. You might try a gradient filter like Gradient Xterminator (Photoshop plug in) for the gradient.

Stuart

[Kanadalainen]

You stack in photoshop? You must have the patience of a saint! Why not use a stacking program like DSS or something? It'll make your job much easier!

It's a nice image given the short subs. You might try a gradient filter like Gradient Xterminator (Photoshop plug in) for the gradient.

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for your kind comments.

No patience here. To be very clear, I am using Photoshop CC 2019, and have no other experience with older copies, and so can't speak to their limitations. I use a file function that provides a modicum of automation

-> Files>Scripts>Load files into stack.

When you do this you have the option of choosing an auto-align mode, and you can set it up for layering as well. This is all done on a MacBook Pro platform.

I have used Sequator as well, and am experimenting with SiRil.

Easy!

Ian

[Stuart]

Oh, cool. They must have updated photoshop since I last used it years ago. In the old days you had to manually align each image to each other.