M31 The Andromeda Galaxy

talsi - Sep 05, 2008 12:18 PM EDT
Nice work

TMR8 - Aug 23, 2008 07:34 AM EDT
I agree with all below. this photo and your knowledge is fantastic on so many different levels.

donwrob - Aug 22, 2008 11:22 AM EDT
Thanks Jas, Alex, Art, Zoya, Carol, Alan, Ikka and Steve! Steve, I used the DeepSkyStacker program on this one. It is quite a neat program and free. I also did do some tweeking in Arcsoft, the photo shop that came with the camera. Just some light tone, contrast and saturation adjustments. Thanks again everyone. Don

StarguySteve - Aug 20, 2008 01:07 AM EDT
Great shot! What stacking software do you use? Any cleanup done in PS?

bubbalinn - Aug 15, 2008 04:19 PM EDT
What a awesome view!! and really fun to look at. You are the King Mad Scientist for sure... How you put all the photos together and not having any star trails from all of the exposures is amazing.

shutterbug - Aug 15, 2008 06:19 AM EDT
Lovely photo of the Sky. Carol

Zoya - Aug 14, 2008 11:25 PM EDT
Well Done, It works.. This is absolutely wonderful. I am forever staring at the night sky. Thank you Zoya

Art57 - Aug 14, 2008 07:44 PM EDT
Great picture. It sure sounds like a lot of work went into the end result.

whittler113 - Aug 14, 2008 07:17 PM EDT
WOW!! thats outa this world,great job.

Jas - Aug 14, 2008 05:38 PM EDT
Well, 'Mr Mad Scientist', your 'playing around' certainly produced the most wonderful image for us all to see; it's awesome! How you got there sounds all too complicated for my poor brain to cope with but I definitely like the end result. :)

donwrob - Aug 14, 2008 10:54 AM EDT
Thanks Alandra and Alex! Alex, I'm really captivated by the night sky and all there is to see. M31 can be seen with the naked eye as a fuzzy spot just to the right of Cassiopeia. And while the core is fairly bright, it is difficult to pull detail for the dim outer edges without stacking photos. The limit to exposure time is light pollution and the ability to stay tracked, if the shutter stays open too long you get LP fog and/or star trails. This is the reason for the composite of stacked shots. It is odd I guess, to use mixed ISOs, just something I have been experimenting with. In my mind, I can gather more detail with the lower ISOs and more object brightness with the higher ISOs. Combined together you get the best of both and it seems to work. On the other hand, stacking a number of set ISO shots, say ISO 800 would give you very close to the same results. I just like to play around like some sort of mad scientist, lol. Don

Pinetree3 - Aug 14, 2008 06:46 AM EDT
Sounds like this took you a lot of work to put together. This came out great. I am really impressed. I have never heard of creating a composite with different ISOs. Perhaps you would share with me/us why a composite was necessary and how you put it together.

alandrapal - Aug 14, 2008 04:50 AM EDT
very impressive, Don. Really like it.