Our closest cosmic neighbour, Andromeda

Reedited.

 

This is my best galaxy photograph so far. All Andromeda's distant 2,5 million years away photons were collected under the truly dark skies of Exmoor using a reduced fast astrograph FSQ-85ED and a Nikon D810A for about 6 hours.

 

Date: 17th September 2020

 

Location: Brayford, North Devon near Exmoor, GMT+0, United Kingdom, TEMP: 16C, Bortle Class 3 ~SGM: 21.73 mag./arc sec2

 

Equipment:

Camera: Nikon D810A

Imaging Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-85ED

Correcting Lens: Takahashi Reducer-QE 0.73x (composite focal length at 328mm and focal ratio at f/3.8)

Mount: iOptron CEM25EC

 

Tech Details:

Image Quality 14 bit RAW (NEF)

Exposure time per image / number of composites and sensitivity: ISO 3200 96 x 120" subs, ISO 3200 50 x 180" subs

Calibration Frames: 25 Darks, 50 Bias, 25 Flats

Software: PixInsight 1.8.5 Core, Lightroom, Photoshop

 

Total integration time: 5hrs, 42 minutes

 

Website: astrotakis.com/

 

Software: PixInsight 1.8.5 Core, Lightroom, Photoshop

Done