M31 Andromeda

[stemlett]

I think I'm finally getting to understand my star tracker a little bit I only manged to get 21 images to stack but pretty chuffed with the results.

 

[Unframed Dave]

Brilliant. Well done.

 

[Richard A]

Wow. That's excellent. What star tracker do you have? What lens and camera settings were you using?

 

[stemlett]

Wow. That's excellent. What star tracker do you have? What lens and camera settings were you using?

I'm using a ZWO AM5 with an Asiair and a guide camera. For the imaging camera I'm using my A7RIVA with 300mm F2.8 and 1.4 teleconverter. 30 second exposures at ISO4000. I'm sure there's better settings but at the moment I get excited when I get the galaxy appear in the preview window I've then been faffing around getting guiding / tracking going leaving me not much time to actually do some imaging. I think I've got a workflow now which should allow me to get up and running quicker...

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Truly amazing results!

 

[evacguy]

I'm using a ZWO AM5 with an Asiair and a guide camera. For the imaging camera I'm using my A7RIVA with 300mm F2.8 and 1.4 teleconverter. 30 second exposures at ISO4000. I'm sure there's better settings but at the moment I get excited when I get the galaxy appear in the preview window I've then been faffing around getting guiding / tracking going leaving me not much time to actually do some imaging. I think I've got a workflow now which should allow me to get up and running quicker...

Great stuff, very impressive.

 

[Richard A]

Thanks for the info @stemlett. Now for the next question. How do you process it all once you have got the images in your camera?

 

[stemlett]

Thanks for the info @stemlett. Now for the next question. How do you process it all once you have got the images in your camera?

Pull up a chair....

The images are captured and stored on the ASIAIR.
Use PixInsight Weighted Batch Process to stack the files and then I used the following processes with PixInsight:
Automatic Dynamic Background Extraction
Spectromatic Colour Calibration
BlurXTerminator
NoiseXTerminator
Apply stretch to the linear image.
StarXTerminator to separate stars from background
Apply curves and histogram transformations.
Use PixelMatch process to re-integrate the stars and background.

 

[evacguy]

I noted that there is a green tinge to Andromeda. Is that an artifact from the post processing?

 

[stemlett]

I noted that there is a green tinge to Andromeda. Is that an artifact from the post processing?

Yes, quite probably. AIUI using a mirrorless camera you get 2 x green pixels, 1 x red, 1 x blue and there are specific processes to reduce the green.

 

[Richard A]

How do you find the XTerminator plugins?

 

[stemlett]

How do you find the XTerminator plugins?

Really good.

I was watching a YouTube video over the weekend with Russ Croman, the author, where he explained how to tune NoiseXTerminator and it was really informative.

I think what I like about NoiseXTerminator because it's training has been exclusively for astro, the AI doesn't 'add' detail. AIUI things like Topaz Denoise potentially will add non-existent detail.

 

[Richard A]

Thanks. I'll have a look for that.

 

[stemlett]

Here's the link if it saves you looking...

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[Richard A]

Thanks. I’ve already watched it. All this software certainly adds up in price if you want to do all that. I guess if you’re doing a lot of Astro then it’s worthwhile.