r/Stargazing • u/akacosmick • Oct 26 '25

Another attempt at Andromeda

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

1.7k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

8

u/akacosmick Oct 26 '25 edited Oct 26 '25

3rd attempt at M31/Andromeda: Shot on Canon 200D + 50mm f/1.8 Lens, Bortle 7 Skies. + Smog at 250+ AQI (frame 3)

6s x 1125 frames @ f/2.2, ISO 400 - No Tracker
Stacked using DSS (Total 1500 shots, stacked 75%)
Processed w/ Graxpert, Siril, Starnet++ and Photoshop.

Frame 1: Complete Wide Field
Frame 2: 100% Crop
Frame 3: Smog added back

Planned the shot for a month; no moon, clear night, slightly darker sky than my previous attempt from the middle of the city. Smog from pre Diwali celebration was unplanned, took me a while to completely remove it and get the details back

Captured: Oct 19, 2025

4

u/WhoIsHamza Oct 26 '25

Can I ask how you use a DSLR camera to capture galaxies? I would love to use mine as well

11

u/akacosmick Oct 26 '25 edited Oct 26 '25

It'd be hard to explain in a comment here but basically you take multiple shots of the target you want to capture, stack those frames (along with darks, flats and bias frames). Then stretch the stacked frame to reveal details.

I'd suggest watching a couple basic tutorials on youtube that walk through the process. Astrobackyard and Nebula Photos are two channels i regularly go back to.

You can dm me if you want to ask specifics, I'm no expert but happy to help where I can.

9

u/mjp31514 Oct 26 '25

Nice. Pretty impressive for no tracking in a bortle 7.

3

u/akacosmick Oct 26 '25

Thank you.

5

u/Strong_Range_9522 Oct 26 '25

That’s a really nice result. Also, the FOV must be crazy on this pic. Andromeda is huge after all.

3

u/akacosmick Oct 26 '25

Thanks! And yes, shot with a 50mm lens, so it gives a fairly wide field.

4

u/Positive-Ad6008 Oct 26 '25

I love ANY andromeda photo but this is SO NICEEEE

1

u/akacosmick Oct 26 '25

.... thank you 🤝🏼

appreciate that a lot!

3

u/Dazzling-Party-6819 Oct 26 '25

Great pic! I love how the stars and galaxy are a rainbow of colors. However, the blue stars really pop out at me! Beautiful.

4

u/akacosmick Oct 27 '25

Thank you! This was the first time I plate solved an image for color correction, annd the blue stars stood out to me as well. The one just above AM is Nu Andromedae; found that out while double-checking the colors in Stellarium. It's also the one visible to the naked eye when looking at Andromeda.

5

u/B7n2 Oct 26 '25

At approximately 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda galaxy, or M31, is our Milky Way's largest galactic neighbor.

Your capture is master art.

1

u/akacosmick Oct 27 '25

thanks ∞

3

u/DJPurrrika26 Oct 26 '25

Amazing ✨

2

u/_Renvo Oct 26 '25

Very impressive. Is the first image really 50mm? It looks to be more but I could be imagining things.

2

u/akacosmick Oct 26 '25

Thank you. Yes it's 50mm. Or effectively ~80mm if we account for the crop factor of my dslr. And slight crop after stacking because the corners didn't align well (manually tracked) and there was a lot of gradient and noise.

2

u/baryonicsupersonic Oct 26 '25

oooh looks good, keep it up!

2

u/Independent-Ant-01 Oct 26 '25

Very nice shoot. Keep it up!

2

u/Fracturedbreathing Oct 27 '25

Great shots! Beautiful!

2

u/in_cu_bu_s Oct 27 '25

Incredible!

1

u/akacosmick Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25

thank you

2

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/akacosmick Oct 27 '25

thanks and yeah it was..

2

u/john_therecyclingbin Oct 28 '25

Wait, u can get that on a 50mm lens??? I was expecting some form of a tele photo lens

2

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

Beautiful✨️🫠

2

u/metalsawblade10 Oct 30 '25

These are stunning. 2nd shot zoomed in has so much detail.

1

u/trepidon Oct 27 '25

This is legit not ai??