The root folder should include the date the images were taken so you have all of the information you need to reference later including the moon phase and location.
I like to sort all of the picture files and calibration frames into separate folders.Ĭreate a folder for your light frames, dark frames, bias frames, and everyone’s favorite, flat frames. No matter what level of experience you have, I am confident that you will find a number of helpful tricks you can use while processing your own image of the Andromeda Galaxy.Īfter collecting your images of the Andromeda galaxy with your camera, you need to organize all of the files on your computer so that you can easily find them. The goal of this image processing tutorial is not for you to follow my process step-by-step to achieve the same result, but to get a better understanding of the tools and techniques I use to edit my astrophotography images. Andromeda Galaxy Image Processing Tutorial I believe this helped to showcase a bit more of the outer structure details. I blended in my previous version of M31 using the Zenithstar 73, but only at about 25% opacity. The Andromeda Galaxy captured using the William Optics RedCat 51. Using the same image processing techniques shared on this page, I created the following image using 100 x 2-minute exposures with my Canon DSLR. The 250mm field of view at F/4.9 created the widest, deep image of the Andromeda Galaxy I’ve ever taken. This time around, I used an ultra-wide-field refractor telescope, the William Optics RedCat 51. Roughly a month after capturing the original version of the Andromeda Galaxy shared on this page, I photographed this amazing object again from even darker skies. Calibration frames were used (15 x darks, flats, and bias) to help calibrate the final integration.
The final stacked image includes 67 x 2-minute exposures (2 Hours, 14 Minutes Total) at ISO 800. The images were collected while we camped under the stars on a beautiful August night. You can watch the complete journey leading up to this image in the following video: Photographing the Andromeda Galaxy. The telescope tracked the apparent movement of the night sky thanks to Sky-Watcher HEQ5 equatorial telescope mount. A William Optics Zenithstar 73 telescope was used like a telephoto lens on my Canon DSLR camera. This image was captured on a clear night under Bortle Scale Class 4 skies. The camera and telescope equipment used for the photo on this page. Guide Scope: William Optics 50mm Guide Scope.Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 73 APO.The images used in this tutorial were captured using a Canon EOS 60Da DSLR camera with the RAW image type selected. If you are new to this process, you may find the following DeepSkyStacker tutorial useful. This tutorial uses DeepSkyStacker and Adobe Photoshop.
If you choose to download my data and process it, you can skip straight to the Photoshop portion of this tutorial.
You can follow along and process the exact same data I did ( download here), or you can try these techniques on your version of the Andromeda Galaxy taken using your own equipment.
This astrophotography tutorial uses Adobe Photoshop to bring out the intense colors and detail of a galaxy that was photographed using a DSLR camera and a small telescope. In this post, I’ll walk you through the image processing steps I used to create the image of the Andromeda Galaxy shown below.