M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy
Description: M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is in the constellation of Andromeda. This image was taken on August 14, 2007 from the Oregon Star Party. This image was my first attempt at wide field imaging on the cheap. I basically took my Canon 20D and attached it to my polar aligned mount (which didn't even have a telescope on it.) I then used a Canon TC-80N3 to take a series of 30 second exposures with in-camera noise reduction turned on. I don't remember how many exposures I took, but I filled a 1GB memory card. From that, I got 64 acceptable images and stacked them.
Equipment: The image was taken with a cheap 70-300mm zoom lens at 300mm on a Celestrong CG-5GT mount, unguided. The camera was a Canon 20D DSLR at ISO800. Focusing was done by using autofocus on a nearby bright star and switching the lens to manual mode.
Exposures: 64x30 seconds at ISO800.
Processing: Bias and dark calibration, image registration & color registration were done in Maxim/DL. Curves, levels, LRGB combination, zone sharpening & noise reduction were done in Photoshop CS2.
Click on image for full resolution.