AndrewSingleton
The Andromeda Galaxy
Also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years (770 kiloparsecs) from Earth and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the Ethiopian (or Phoenician) princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology. (Wikipedia)
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide in around 4.5 billion years. With an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is among the brightest of the Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye from Earth on moonless nights, even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution. (Wikipedia)
Also in the picture are the satellite galaxies of M32(NGC 221) just above to the left and M101(NGC 205) which is at the bottom of the picture.
160x180s (8 Hours) with flats and bias. Dithered. Taken over 5 nights between 13th and 20th September 2020.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100 with a GuDoQi Wireless Wifi SD Card.
ISO: 400. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector. IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box and a white t-shirt.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - NINA connecting to EQMOD, PHD Guiding 2, and Plate Solve 2. EZ Share to automatically push pictures to the laptop for image centralization. Also used PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Star Tools and Topaz Denoise AI.
Moon: Between 10% Waning Crescent and 10% waxing crescent. All pictures used had no moon in the sky.
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 7/8 in Davyhulme, Manchester. Different websites tell me different things about this. It all depends on the time of night and which way I’m pointing.
Seeing: - What an unusual and amazing run of clear sky’s either side of a new moon. Seeing was mostly good, sometimes fair and sometimes great.
Notes:- This was a major project for me spending more time on this picture than any of the pictures that came before it. It is the object that I have most looked forward to doing and was worried that the sky’s would not clear. They cleared.
I used 5 nights of data however I have actually been shooting Andromeda over 8 nights starting in early August with a half waning Moon. I must have about 20-30 hours of pictures, but I have now deemed the majority of these unusable. The gradients with even a half moon meant I stood no chance and 3 nights had to be written off completely. I stepped down to only include frames with below 3% sky background in DSS but this was not enough and it was only when I dumped all frames over 2% that I started to get some success. In fact 8 hours of below 2% was far better than the 13 hours I had below 3%.
I bought a long USB extender so I could control things indoors, this means my time outdoors is much less these days. The problem is that the wifi on the sd card doesn’t reach indoors so I had to use a wifi adapter I already had to receive the signal. This works for a while but after an hour or 2 the thing keeps cutting out which is very frustrating. Being indoors is such a boon so I have decided to still use NINA to set things up, plate solve and centre but I’m back to using the remote shutter and PHD2 dither timer for the main pictures to make sure I get a full session in. Enough is enough. At some point I will be buying a dedicated astronomy camera. The D3100 has served me well over the years but it won’t connect directly to any astro software and I’m tired of trying to work around this.
It was advised to me in the comments section of another picture to try using Topaz Denoise AI so I set up a free trial. Thanks a lot mate, I’m now going to have to depart with more money because I was impressed. Star Tools does a good job but Topaz is better. It can even improve pics from the noisiest camera in the world. A brief note on the colour, at least its not green. That said red seems to dominate, and I seem to pick up none of the blue that other photographers seem to get. Perhaps that will change with a better camera.
At the 2am meridian flip (a lot of the lights go out around here by then) I tried making out Andromeda with my naked eyes. I know where it is and can easily find it with bino’s. I actually think I saw it; the problem is I cant work out whether I am seeing something because there is something or I’m seeing something because I think I should be seeing something.
Previous pictures of Andromeda for comparison: -
Andromeda through 300mm lens on the D3100.Taken 7 years ago with no light pollution filter.
Milky Way and Andromeda over some trees.Standard DSLR shot taken in the Alps in 2013.
Andromeda and Comet C/2011 Panstarrs.Another standard DSLR pic taken is the Yorkshire Dales in 2013.
The Andromeda Galaxy
Also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years (770 kiloparsecs) from Earth and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the Ethiopian (or Phoenician) princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology. (Wikipedia)
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide in around 4.5 billion years. With an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is among the brightest of the Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye from Earth on moonless nights, even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution. (Wikipedia)
Also in the picture are the satellite galaxies of M32(NGC 221) just above to the left and M101(NGC 205) which is at the bottom of the picture.
160x180s (8 Hours) with flats and bias. Dithered. Taken over 5 nights between 13th and 20th September 2020.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100 with a GuDoQi Wireless Wifi SD Card.
ISO: 400. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector. IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box and a white t-shirt.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - NINA connecting to EQMOD, PHD Guiding 2, and Plate Solve 2. EZ Share to automatically push pictures to the laptop for image centralization. Also used PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Star Tools and Topaz Denoise AI.
Moon: Between 10% Waning Crescent and 10% waxing crescent. All pictures used had no moon in the sky.
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 7/8 in Davyhulme, Manchester. Different websites tell me different things about this. It all depends on the time of night and which way I’m pointing.
Seeing: - What an unusual and amazing run of clear sky’s either side of a new moon. Seeing was mostly good, sometimes fair and sometimes great.
Notes:- This was a major project for me spending more time on this picture than any of the pictures that came before it. It is the object that I have most looked forward to doing and was worried that the sky’s would not clear. They cleared.
I used 5 nights of data however I have actually been shooting Andromeda over 8 nights starting in early August with a half waning Moon. I must have about 20-30 hours of pictures, but I have now deemed the majority of these unusable. The gradients with even a half moon meant I stood no chance and 3 nights had to be written off completely. I stepped down to only include frames with below 3% sky background in DSS but this was not enough and it was only when I dumped all frames over 2% that I started to get some success. In fact 8 hours of below 2% was far better than the 13 hours I had below 3%.
I bought a long USB extender so I could control things indoors, this means my time outdoors is much less these days. The problem is that the wifi on the sd card doesn’t reach indoors so I had to use a wifi adapter I already had to receive the signal. This works for a while but after an hour or 2 the thing keeps cutting out which is very frustrating. Being indoors is such a boon so I have decided to still use NINA to set things up, plate solve and centre but I’m back to using the remote shutter and PHD2 dither timer for the main pictures to make sure I get a full session in. Enough is enough. At some point I will be buying a dedicated astronomy camera. The D3100 has served me well over the years but it won’t connect directly to any astro software and I’m tired of trying to work around this.
It was advised to me in the comments section of another picture to try using Topaz Denoise AI so I set up a free trial. Thanks a lot mate, I’m now going to have to depart with more money because I was impressed. Star Tools does a good job but Topaz is better. It can even improve pics from the noisiest camera in the world. A brief note on the colour, at least its not green. That said red seems to dominate, and I seem to pick up none of the blue that other photographers seem to get. Perhaps that will change with a better camera.
At the 2am meridian flip (a lot of the lights go out around here by then) I tried making out Andromeda with my naked eyes. I know where it is and can easily find it with bino’s. I actually think I saw it; the problem is I cant work out whether I am seeing something because there is something or I’m seeing something because I think I should be seeing something.
Previous pictures of Andromeda for comparison: -
Andromeda through 300mm lens on the D3100.Taken 7 years ago with no light pollution filter.
Milky Way and Andromeda over some trees.Standard DSLR shot taken in the Alps in 2013.
Andromeda and Comet C/2011 Panstarrs.Another standard DSLR pic taken is the Yorkshire Dales in 2013.