Ultimate M31

This project over several night resulted in 7 hours of total exposure,it shows the performance of the SBIG STL11k, this is not a mosaic!
The attachment is big but still reduced to 50% size.

Careful processing brought out the dim dust lanes close to the center.
Technical information and larger size images at:
http://panther-observatory.com/gallery/deepsky/doc/M31_wide.htm

Enjoy,

Johannes
http://panther-observatory.com

Attached Image:

Incredible detail Johannes!
In your website you mention that you reduced residual noise using Neatimage. I have a question: I guess that you must have created a noise profile for your camera in order to avoid the problem of finding a noisy area free of relevant data (as far as I know, necessary with Neatimage).
Do you think that a dark frame could be useful in creating a Neatimage noise profile for a specific camera? I thought so because a dark should be the best representation of the typical noise of a camera in a certain defined state. What kind of shot did you use to create yours, if you have created it, of course?

Thanks one more time for sharing this great image Johannes.

Ciao
Luca

Simply put, AMAZING!
Incredible shot you got here Johannes... beautiful detail & color all around this image.
Great detail on the dust lanes of the Galaxy.

Thank you for sharing with us!


Ivan

That is just stunning, Johannes. The incredible detail and beautiful color range are some of the best I've ever seen. I would call this 'The Penultimate M 31' though; the huge size of the STL11K captures the coma in your system.
Congratulations on a wonderful image.

My regards,
dan kowall

Glorious!

Alan

Wonderful. You even got a bit of detail in M110!

Johannes,

Sensational!! M31, thanks for sharing

Wes Higgins

Wonderful image Johannes. I know you had to have put a lot of effort into this and it really paid off. Congratulations!

JKim Phillips