Yet Another M31

[E2Pilot]

Went to the East Coast Star Party a couple of weeks ago and decided to try M31 again from darker skies.  After some nice instruction in processing from many here and my friend Don Waid, I actually did this one all by my lonesome LOL.  Still learning but having a blast with this Digital Rebel while I am at it.

Scope:  Megrez 80, 480mm F/l F6.0
Camera:  Canon Digital Rebel
Settings:  ISO 400, RAW
Exposures 5 x 6 Minutes, guiding provided by Meade DSI
Processing:  Coverted to TIFFS in Photoshop, aligned and stacked in MaximDL, final processing in Photoshop

Here is the medium sized image:



As always, comments welcom.

[JJerzak]

Very nice image of M31!  You seem to have the processing down quite well also.

[E2Pilot]

Thanks Justin.  Still working on the histograms, trying to not cut off the edges which it appears that I still did a bit of here probably due to the low star saturation, never is a finished product is it LOL.

[Ron]

Steve,

Nice image!!

I can guarantee that would be the finish line for me if I ever get one to look that good with my 300D.

Thanks for sharing,

Ron

[sc02492]

Excellent image!  Looks like you are off to a great start with the 300D.

Steve

[E2Pilot]

Thanks for kind words Steve and Ron.  Hoping for some great winter skies to put this little guy to work.

[ricksastro]

Stephen,

Nice image!  Nice smooth processing.  

Do you have much light pollution to contend with? I would think that at 6 minutes, you should be getting a little deeper.

Great job!

Rick Krejci

[Jake]

Steve-

That looks very nice - looks like the Megrez80 is a good match up for the Digital Rebel.  Coma and false color don't look very pronounced.

Nice work -

Jake

[E2Pilot]

Do you have much light pollution to contend with? I would think that at 6 minutes, you should be getting a little deeper.
Rick Krejci

Rick,

Well...  Actually, that was at one of our dark sky sites, so I don't think the light pollution was too bad, probably just a lack of experience on my part in processing LOL.  Probably all sorts of goodies in that image I didn't find.  We'll get there,

Thanks

[E2Pilot]

looks like the Megrez80 is a good match up for the Digital Rebel.  Coma and false color don't look very pronounced.

Jake,

the Megrez does do a decent job with this camera but it could also use a good field flattner as well which I have not been able to find yet.  I plan to upgrade the optics here soon with thier ED triplett cell.  Don;t think that will help coma much, but you should see what happened with M42, pretty little pink blobs every where, so, I hope to get rid of those at least.

Thanks

[Grizz]

Hey Steve thats very well done I want to try it with my 10d but I really need to get a nice widefield guidescope to try and image thru. The EXT90 I have now just won't cut it.