M31 - Andromeda: My First Serious Attempt

Behold, my first dedicated effort to capture the majesty of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31)! This image was a labor of love, brought to life under the pristine dark skies of a Bortle 4 zone in the Morongo Basin of the Mojave Desert. A special shout-out to Sky's the Limit Observatory and Nature Center for their incredible hospitality and for providing such an exceptional location for celestial observation and imaging.

Technical Deep Dive: Capturing the Cosmos

This image represents a significant step in my astrophotography journey, and here are the details of how it was achieved:

Acquisition Details:

• Target: M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)
• Total Integration Time: 2 hours, 56 minutes, 40 seconds
• Exposure Details: 106 frames x 100 seconds each at ISO 400
• Focal Length: 384mm
• Focal Ratio: f/4.8
• Telescope: Askar V (80mm objective with reducer)
• Mount: Skywatcher Wave 100i
• Guiding Setup: Askar 52mm f/4 guide scope, ZWO ASI220 mini guide camera, PHD2 guiding software
• Imaging Camera: Pentax k-70 (unmodified)
• Observing Location: Bortle Zone 4 (Morongo Basin, Mojave Desert)

Processing Workflow:

Bringing out the subtle details of M31 involved a meticulous processing pipeline:

• Stacking Software: Siril was the primary tool for stacking.
• Calibration Frames: 20 Bias frames, 20 Flat frames, and 20 Dark frames were used.
• Stacking Method: Average stacking with rejection (Windsorized Sigma Clipping) was employed to minimize noise and artifacts.
• Key Processing Steps in Siril:
  • Background Extraction
  • Astrometric Color Calibration
  • Green Noise Reduction
  • Asinh stretch followed by Histogram stretch
• Export: The stacked image was exported as a TIFF file for further refinement.
• Final Touches: Adobe Lightroom was used for final processing, including adjustments to light levels, saturation, noise reduction, chromatic aberration reduction, and final export to JPEG.

This project was incredibly rewarding, and I'm thrilled to share the results with you. The journey of capturing and processing deep-sky objects like Andromeda is a constant learning process, and I'm excited for what's next!