Just Call Me Galaxy Bill

19-09-23 closeup

I’ve been trying to photograph M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, for a while and this is my most gratifying effort to date. I was in a fairly dark location tracking with the ioptron Skytracker and the picture was taken with the Canon T3i and 50mm lens at f/3.5 ISO 400 and 120 second exposure. I had done a series of 60 second exposures at 800 ISO with the idea of stacking them but that hasn’t worked out so far. The brighter stars near the bottom of the image are v Andromeda to the left and 32 Andromeda to the right. It’s interesting that the little parade of stars near v And. and the little squad above 32 And. are actually there. Some of those stars are getting down to magnitude 10 or 11.

The image below from stellarium shows the two groupings and also shows the real extent of M31 which is only hinted at in my image. Oh, and in the stellarium image you can see a small puff above Andromeda which is M110, a satellite galaxy of M31, also barely visible in my image.

19-09-23 stellarium andromeda

The image below is the uncropped version.

Woohoo – Now We’re Tracking!

I had a bit of a debacle the first time i tried the ioptron skytracker – i had no luck at all with the polar scope and i just roughly aligned it with the bore hole. I had the brilliant idea to roll up a sheet of paper to stick in the sighting hole which let me find and center polaris and then i was able to graduate to their polar scope. iOptron makes an app that gives you these little pictures of where polaris should be in the reticle – it seemed loony to me but i was actually able to line it up pretty much spot on.

I was working in a cramped spot with no good view of the sky so my reward was this nondescript image of part of ursa minor and draco with zero trailing that i can see. These are fairly close to the pole but I think they would have shown some trailing in 30 second images. These were taken with the Canon t3i, f/4 ISO 400.
19-9-17 woohoo 3894

I’ll get out into the country and try my luck on M31 tonight. That’s much more likely to smear but i’m optimistic. I need to get much better at pointing the camera once it’s on the mount and i need to remember to focus both the camera and the reticle before i start. it’s interesting to note that it makes very little difference in sighting whether i have my glasses on or not!

Tracking Andromeda

M31ButHow

That’s M31 – the Andromeda Galaxy – front and center. Mirach and Alpheratz are toward the bottom. This is a combination of five images shot at 10 seconds f/4 ISO 1600 using the Canon t3i with 50mm f/2.8 lens. The five images were combined with DeepSkyStacker then brightened with the Windows Photo tool. The sky was visually dark although it shows blue-grey above.

The Camera was mounted on my new-to-me ioptron Skytracker. I didn’t have a lot of luck aligning the tracker with Polaris, my vision is pretty poor at night, but I’ll keep trying.

Cr*p – I AndroMissed

I was out last night with a new 50mm Canon lens aiming to get multiple exposures of M31 in Andromeda but i blew it on several levels. First and worst, I pointed the camera with SkyView on an iphone rather than hanging off Cassiopeia the way i did the last time.

19-09-10 androMissedIt2 In any event I was way off with the wrong part of Cassiopeia in frame and Andromeda off to the right. The stellarium clip below shows what i was looking for which would have put andromeda right near the center. Pointing with the phone is cute but it’s not trustworthy.

19-9-10 androMissedIt

Then I was all over the map with my exposures. In the previous outing at 55mm I got a smudge at f/5.6, 10 seconds, ISO 1600. I should have started there adjusting for the faster lens. Maybe f/4 6 seconds ISO 1600. Lastly, I had only jpegs being produced which are no good for stacking.

Also, the lens may be faster but, while the center stars are pretty good, the stars near the edge are smeared – this could be a defect or just need stopping the lens down a bit.

So: Next time try to bracket Shedar in Cassiopeia and Mirach in Andromeda at 50mm. Expose for 6 sec at f/4 ISO 1600. If It’s a good evening I could try bringing my laptop and checking with the plate solver but that’s a lot of risk and setup fuss.

The two samples below were shot with the Canon T3i 50mm lens at f/2.8 ISO 1600, 4 seconds on the left and 6 on the right.

UPDATE: I accidentally found something super encouraging. The plate solving web site, shows you images uploaded by other users in the neighbourhood of your shot. One of them looked like andromeda so i clicked it and got the results below. I’d be delighted if i got anything like this and the field of view is almost identical to mine(24.8X16.6 degrees vs my 24.7X16.5). So, if i can capture enough light i can get an acceptably sized image. I don’t think it was taken with the same sort of setup i’m using(50mm lens on a canon aps-c body) because the pixel scale is different, 25.5 arcsec/pixel vs my 17.2 but still it’s very encouraging. I see another shot with similar but distinct parameters(24.4X15.7 degrees, 15.3 arcsec/pixel).

These may be done with more sophisticated setups and tracking but i suspect they are single images. I don’t think anyone would upload stacked images to a plate solver.

Well: somewhat less encouragingly I was able to identify the camera as a Sony ILCE7RM2, a $2500 full frame mirrorless camera. Also, that shot was a 401 second exposure at 85mm f/2.2. So to get that much light i would need to stack maybe 100 shots with my camera. still, image size is not the barrier i was afraid of.

Another example, below from a tutorial(for which thank you) also shows andromeda at 80mm equivalent focal length. This was made from a stack of 25 light frames. Andromeda and Half Dome – Nikon D800e, Nikon 85mm f/1.8 G – ISO 6400, f/1.8, 6 sec.

19-09-10 sharp-stars-starscapes-tutorial-683x1024

To get that much light I would need 100 shots at f/4 6 seconds ISO 6400. (Or I need to get my darned tracker working)

Scorpio Rising Over Haystack Rock

These were done at Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach Oregon using the Canon T3i with the 18-55mm kit lens. Both are f/4 28mm, the first one is 4 seconds at ISO 1600, the second one 6 seconds at 3200 – it was also a few minutes later and the light was fading.

At Last! A Smudge!

No exactly epic but I’m pleased at how my camera pointing skills are progressing. This was taken at the dark sky site with the Canon T3i, the 18-55 kit lens at 55mm f/5.6, 10 seconds at ISO 1600. The two yellow blocks are u and v Andromeda. I was pointing the camera using Cassiopeia as my anchor point.

19-08-03 andromeda 3583

Another camera pointing exercise: Back at my home base I was using the SkyView app on my phone to point at M31. The image was taken with the Canon T3i using a 24mm f/2.8 lens – 15 seconds at ISO 800.

19-08-05 andromeda 3636

HaHa – Had It All Along (Sort Of)

The plate solver web site gives you a bunch of information about your image like field of view. I wanted to get the info for the Nikon so I went back and picked an image that was done at wide angle and fed it in. Lo and behold, there was Hercules front and center. This is exactly the starting point I was looking for to trail my way up to it. The image is not much good because it was done at reduced resolution and i had to boost brightness and contrast all to heck to get it recognized. Still, it’s an excellent start.
At the left bottom is the handle of the dipper and top middle is Hercules.

This was shot with the Nikon at its widest setting-24mm equivalent, ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/2 sec. The resolution is one quarter of maximum at 2272X1704. I boosted it to +35 brightness, +100 contrast with Paint Shop Pro.

The plate solver output is shown below:

19-07-20 plate solver

Finding Hercules

19-07-20 Finding Hercules 3520

This is still not great, in fact it’s awful, but it includes the keystone central “square” of hercules. I took a shot with the Canon T3i just bumping up from the handle of the dipper. i was lost at first but i was able to locate it using a plate solver online. This sifts through some database and gives you the coordinates you’re shooting at. It will also overlay your image on the sky as shown in the world-wide-telescope which is a thing!

In the top right of the image you can see Hercules and the green circle surrounds the area where M13, the Globular Cluster, is. That’s what i’m ultimately aiming for and now I have a sniff.

The image was taken with the Canon T3i and 18mm lens 30 seconds at ISO 800 f/5.6. That’s about 2X the exposure time I should use so it shows significant movement of the stars. In fact, I think I must have whacked it during the exposure to be this bad. I’m going to try it with the Nikon next time it’s clear.

This is oriented 180 degrees from my previous effort. The dipper would be way off the top of the photo sort of where that arm of hercules is aimed.

Finding Hercules

19-07-20 Finding Hercules 3520

In the top right of the image you can see Hercules and the green circle surrounds the area where M13, the Globular Cluster, is. That’s what i’m ultimately aiming for and now I have a sniff.

This is oriented 180 degrees from my previous effort. The dipper would be way off the top of the photo sort of where that arm of hercules is aimed.

Chasing Hercules

19-07-19 missing Herc Img_3504
I have a hard time spotting the constellation Hercules. It’s nearly overhead which means no closeby terrestrial markers and awkward head straining. Also, the stars are a bit dim for my tired old eyes. I had figured I could just look up from the handle of the dipper by brute force and wide angle but I had misjudged the field of view of the Canon. I did work my way up by fits and starts to the base of hercules but I was just too low.
At the bottom in this image in green are the two end stars in the dipper’s handle – mizar/alcor and alkaid. Above and left is part of Bootes. Then the three stars in a line lead up to the bottom part of hercules in red. Off to the right are draco and the little dipper. This is the Canon T3i at the widest I have(18mmX1.6~=30mm), 2 seconds at f/5.6 ISO 6400.