Order of Kilopi
Of course I truly wish I'd taken these photos, but alas such is not the case.
I was perusing Robert Gendler's website to look for updates and discovered this new mosaic of Andromeda. It's so beautiful I wanted to pass it on. Many probably remember this trademark shot he assembled previously. Ah what I'd give to be in his league...
Established Member
Rob is in a league of his own. He is a very nice guy and truly deserves the accolades that he receives.
Tom
Order of Kilopi
Tom, I'd equally love to be in your league! Just give me a few years...
Established Member
Gorgeous shots! Of course, it helps to have the money to buy a 20" RC scope (about $50K) and the facilities, mount, drives, etc to pull this off (easily the cost of the scope). When my old house is sold, I want to build a modest observatory to house my 6" f:8 AP refractor and go digital. Imagery like this is beyond my budget, though.
Psst...if anyone can whisper me the next powerball numbers, I'll give you half and let you play with the new scope.
Established Member
that is truly fantastic. The depth of color and lack of noise in this image are just mindboggling.
For sure, he is using some very fancy equipment, but don't forget this particular key parameter of the picture, which is probably the most significant aspect of it:
holy freakin' cow. That's serious work.Cumulative Exposure approximately 90 Hours
Attached is my best effort so far - a measly 45 minutes or so... I think the difference is rather apparent. Sure, it was taken with a cheapo Chinese 6" Newtonian (and a Canon 300D) - but it's the exposure time that gets you.
Regards
Krill
Moderator
That's a brilliant shot Krill. Well done and keep 'em coming!
Established Member
Gendler's certainly in a class by himself.
Krill, yours is no mean effort either. Well done.
Established Member
And don't forget the photoshopping!Originally Posted by BoredHugeKrill
And what a nice shot it is! Congrats krill! Would love to see more
Established Member
thanks for the comments everybody! Much appreciated.
Unfortunately, it looks like that will be it for a while... the weather has closed in somewhat here in Oregon, and I don't expect many clear weekends anytime soon :-(
Regards
Krill
Order of Kilopi
Can someone please explain how they get the different angles of M31? I mean, I have seen so many different angles of images that it would suggest
M31 was spinning and wobbling out of control...:P (If you want me to post examples I can)
Established Member
hmm...
Don't know about that. Certainly, if you rotate the image of M31, it does tend to take on a rather different aspect. Kind of like the Mona Lisa, if you know what I mean
One thing to bear in mind: some of the outer reaches of M31 (well, pretty all of it, actually) are extremely feint. Depending on the exposure and processing treatment you'll see more or less of the spiral arms, and any picture can look very different depending on how much exposure time you have.
It definitely isn't spinning wildly, though. Can you share examples to illustrate what you mean?
Regards
Krill
Established Member
What you are describing is a result of something astrophotographers have to do quite frequently. If an object covers a lot of your film at the focal plane, you rotate the camera until you can fit in as much of the interesting stuff as possible. Extended objects like M31 get "jammed" into many rectangular imaging formats diagonally, to fit in as much as of the object as possible.
With digital photography, you don't get as much "real estate" at the focal plane (unless you are very wealthy, because big chips are $$$), so images of extended objects have to be made up in a mosaic fashion.
Order of Kilopi
I see what happened now, Someone mislabeled an image of the some other Galaxy, and called it M31, the image I saw was a view from the top, which
M31 is leaning quite a bit, and thats why I was confused....
...sorry for the blond moment
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