An attempt at Andromeda
My 5th time trying to image a seemingly easy target with something being off... This time I must have nudged the lens out of focus slightly and there was some dew forming on the lens that I hadn't noticed. This hobby sure has a steep learning curve!
Still, decided to not throw away the whole attempt and did a quick processing. It's about 45 minutes worth of 30 sec exposures at 500mm f6.3.
Feedback appreciated!
I’m not a photographer, but it looks pretty damn good to me!
To think that all those individual stars are much, much closer to us, around a few hundred light years at most, while that thing in the background thousands of times more distant, at least two-and-a-half million lightyears behind.
Let's put it this way:
Let's say that with your telescope you can see stars that are around 3000 lightyears away. That's about a kiloparsec, give or take.
Meanwhile, Andromeda is around 780 kiloparsecs behind that.
Nice job! I have been in the position of getting dew on the lens. I’m a newbie too, still lots to learn.
Something I learned is extra stacking only removes noise (which is important), it doesn’t actually “enhance” the amount of light received. I think my next attempt at a deep sky object will be something like 5 minute exposures, but only stack 20-25 of them. Someone correct me if I’m wrong about how I’m thinking about this.
Thank you so much! I'll definitely be looking into dew heaters in the future!
Additional stacking definitely improves how bright faint objects appear, but it has gradually diminishing returns. In my limited experience you're right though.
Longer single frame exposure are definitely better, as long as the overall integration time remains the same.
The problem is my setup is at its limit with a 500mm lens on an APS-C sensor, going above 30 seconds without autoguiding would be incredibly hard!
I also have a 200mm lens that I got up to 120 sec exposures without trailing, but it's definitely a challenge.
Thanks for the feedback!
Are you using a tracker at least?
I think my next big upgrade from a basic Star tracker, which does work for stuff like this, is a GoTo mount with tracking. I know there is also software that continuously monitors an image and communicates with the mount to ensure your intended object stays locked in frame (this may be the auto guider you mentioned) - I have not looked into this