M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy
Description: M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, in the constellation of Andromeda. This image was taken on July 20, 2009 from Table Mountain Star Party in Washington state.
My main imaging target for this night was NGC7000. After that run, I had some extra time, so I took a shot of M31. The total exposure time was only 30 minutes because dawn was rapidly approaching. The last several subexposures of this run were showing a rapidly increasing background brightness that I had to normalize out using CCDStack. Also, there is a faint reflection artifact on the right side of the image, just below center. I have been getting these artifacts in my Hyperstar images whenever there is a very bright object in the field. I've yet to run down the source of the reflection...
Equipment: The image was taken with an 8" Celestron C8 telescope on a Celestron CGE mount with a Hyperstar 3 lens. The camera was a QHY8PRO. The exposures were guided with Astro-Tech AT66ED refractor and Meade DSI Pro piggyback mounted on the C8, using PHD guiding software. Focus was done automatically with FocusMax and a MicroTouch focus motor on a FeatherTouch SCT focuser.
Exposures: 45x120 seconds binned 1x1.
Processing: Image capture was done with Maxim/DL 5. Calibration, registration, noise reduction and stacking were done in CCDStack. Curves, levels and zone processing were done in Photoshop CS2. Gradient processing was done with GradientXTerminator.
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