Andromeda Galaxy reprocessed image added

[Jannyfox]

Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy. 2.2 million light years away and you can see it with the naked eye. It has two little companion galaxies, M32 and NGC205 (aka M110). M32 is the one closest in.
Not the world's best image of it but it's the first image I've ever taken with my Skywatcher driven mount/Canon 550D/Sigma 150-600 combination. I've taken wider field shots before with a Tamron 17-50, but off someone else's mount that was all set up for me, and I've imaged through a scope, but again one set up for me. This was my first time with my own mount, which is polar aligned for my patio, but I took it to someone else's house, plonked it down with the north leg pointing to Polaris and didn't touch the alignment. The star alignment I tried to do went wrong because I didn't have the the mounting screw tight enough and the lens moved as the mount slewed. So having done everything wrong I decided to go for an image anyway just to see what happened.
15 x 25 sec + 1 x 40 sec exposures, total time just under 7 mins, at 600mm, f6.3, iso 800. I had convinced myself it was both out of focus and trailed. I didn't expect this............


M31 by Jannyfox on Talk Photography

 

[sirch]

Very impressive Jan, I keep pondering one of those Skywatcher mounts and it's good to see what can be done, thanks for posting.

 

[Jannyfox]

I have the EQ3-2 mount, the lightweight one (I'm only little and need to be able to carry it around). It won't take a lot of weight but I never intended putting a scope on it. I only use a scope for visual observing and I have a 150mm reflector on a driven alt az mount for that. Another Skywatcher and another portable combination. The driven mounts with the Synscan Go-To are very good, but the bigger ones for carrying heavy scopes, guide scopes, cameras etc are monsters.

 

[jbw]

Nice shot Jan

 

[Norkie]

Very well done, nice image

 

[Tobers]

That's seriously cool. To think that what appears to be a cloud of dust is composed of billions of stars - amazing.

 

[michael23]

Very nice result that Jan, which mount do you use?

 

[Jannyfox]

Very nice result that Jan, which mount do you use?

Skywatcher EQ3-2, driven on both axes. The camera/lens is direct on the dovetail in place of a scope.

 

[swag72]

Good detail there - The dust lanes are showing through nicely - Well done

 

[Jannyfox]

Good detail there - The dust lanes are showing through nicely - Well done

Thank you Sara. I just need to get my act sorted out to get enough exposure to show colour. Try as I might I can't get any out of this one.

 

[Jannyfox]

I've had another tweak at the processing on this and managed to extract some colour. I'm just so impressed at the versatility of this lens - well worth the money

Messier 31 by Jannyfox, on Flickr

 

[mr.si]

Great detail there. I love the whirlpool galaxy! Didn't know you could get in as close as that with a 600mm even when on a crop sensor body. Something for me to aspire to, though I only have a 400mm.

 

[Jannyfox]

Great detail there. I love the whirlpool galaxy! Didn't know you could get in as close as that with a 600mm even when on a crop sensor body. Something for me to aspire to, though I only have a 400mm.

This isn't the Whirlpool, Simon. That's M51 in Canes Venatici and is visually much smaller than this one. M31 is huge - a telescope, even a small one, will get you in too close and you won't see it all in one go. This image is completely uncropped and you can see it fills the frame, so it would be a good target for your 400mm though you do need a tracking mount. If you have one go for it.