Observation by Kevin Gurney: M31 with H alpha

Uploaded by

Kevin Gurney

Observer

Kevin Gurney

Observed

2023 Sep 24 - 21:51

Uploaded

2024 Jan 30 - 22:15

Objects

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
M110
M32

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Constellation

Andromeda

Field centre

RA: 00^h42^m
Dec: +41°16'
Position angle: +162°04'

Field size

2°47' × 2°06'

Equipment

William Optics Star 71
ZWO ASI 1600MM
Fornax 102 mount
Atik EFW
Baader filters LRGB, Ha
SX Lodestar2
Starkeeper Voyager, Pixinsight, PhD2, XnView

Exposure

24xLUM, 16xRed, 12xBlue, 12xGreen, 12xJa, all 300s, bin1x1

Location

Charente, France

Target name

Andromeda Galaxy

Title

M31 with H alpha

About this image

I have never taken a 'serious' image of M31. It's an 'old chestnut' for astrophotograpy but, with Andromeda well placed, I decided I had to give it a go. To make it more interesting, I decided to gather Hydrogen alpha in narrowband, as well as the more usual LRGB, and to try and show off the Ha to good effect. There are several methods discussed online for integrating Ha with broadband data in galaxies. The approach I used was that which removes the 'uninteresting' part of the Ha data using the Red channel (here the galactic nucleus) and then combines the resulting 'interesting Ha' with Red and Blue to give a pink/magenta colour for the Ha emission regions. This highlights one main 'ring' of such regions, and some sporadic companions elsewhere.

There is a total of 6hrs 20mins of data over two nights in September 2023.

Files associated with this observation

M31_BAA.jpg (1.4 MB)

Like this image

Nick Hewitt, Callum Potter, Peter Tickner, Jeremy Shears, Jonathon Elliott, Nicholas Freeman, Bill Leatherbarrow, Simon Paul Davis, Dominic Ford, Joan Genebriera, Ian Jarrett, Martin Lewis, Graham Winstanley, Martina McGovern

Comments

Joan Genebriera, 2024 Feb 01 - 18:07 UTC

Outstanding! congratulations

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