I took this image in the summer of 2021. It remains the best shot of the Andromeda Galaxy I’ve ever taken, until this coming summer at least. I decided to reprocess it today. The differences are small but the core is not blown out this time. Also, last time I had issues with the satellite galaxies and ultimately left them out, this time they are okay.
The original can be found here.
Technically, I think Melotte 15 is the star cluster here that is carving the nebulosity that you see from the larger Heart Nebula (here) but I think most people think of this nebulosity when they hear the name.
This was taken Saturday night at the River Ridge Observatory under a nearly full moon. The scope was pointed away from the Moon and I used a dual narrowband filter to reduce it’s impact. I had just swapped out my Hyperstar adapter with the secondary mirror and returned to imaging in a more conventional way, albeit with a 0.63 reducer/corrector. F/6.3 and focal length of 1760mm instead of f/1.9 and 530mm. 28 5 minute subs went into this image, stacked with DSS and processed in Photoshop.
I also used the evening to test a new power supply. You’ve heard of Jackery and Bluetti. They have entry level models with about 250 WHrs for about $250. I couldn’t justify that as I almost always have electricity handy. Then I saw an ad from Walmart for their Onn house brand offering a 220 Whr power supply for $99. I got one and after it arrived and I had a chance to check it out, ordered another. One powered the mount, the dew straps, and the camera for four hours using up just over 50% of capacity. I did not include my laptop because I did not yet have a way to run it off of 12V. I think the two will be more than enough to run everything all night if I find myself without electricity like at a dark site.
To be honest, it was a full spectrum modified DSLR with a dual narrowband filter to let hydrogen alpha light through. This image was made from 45 two minute images with a 50mm lens on a Canon T5i. Tracking but not guided.
Barnard’s Loop is part of the Orion molecular cloud complex which includes the Orion Nebula (below center). The bright star in the upper left is Betelgeuse while the one in the lower right is Rigel.
