Well, I went out a couple of nights back and tried for Andromeda again.I thought that if zooming in to 200mm with a slow lens (f/5.6) was not getting it done, especially with 1 second captures, perhaps not being so aggressive with the zoom might work to my favor.I dialed the telephoto back to 85mm, which gave me a faster f-stop (f/4.5). This also meant that I could do 3 second captures, which is probably as big a help as that faster f-stop.
This is a cropped (and I mean heavily cropped) down section of the total capture. It is still gigantic. (edit: all images are clickable)
I messed with it as I could get the time, but the light pollution is really killing me. I need a filter. But, those are visible dust lanes!
This is the same photo, but scaled down a bit to fit more easily on the screen.
I am still pleased with this version. I don’t think it is a terrible photograph. And, looking at it, I have to tell you, the only visible star in that area of the sky is that big jobber towards the bottom right. I have to put the camera in Live Mode and zoom in in order to see that larger star in that central bunch below Andromeda. That is what I target, and it is just a tiny, little, hardly visible pixel. You’d never be aware that the rest of these stars were even up there if you looked at the sky with your own eyes. See the yellowish haze towards the bottom for the reason why.
Here’s the jazzed up version.
Yup! Three galaxies in that picture!
With the light pollution filter, the smallest one should get more visible.
M31, M32, M110.
Check the fullsize version, too.
http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/4563410
Mars was also up, so I popped off just a few snaps of it. Focusing was dead on!
Again, Mars was alone in that section of sky. It is amazing what we are missing out on.
The West Coast fire smoke is helping me by letting me have some time to play around with the post-processing a bit more than just cramming one image in after another night after night.
The sky is definitely changing over to autumn, though. I can see the difference every time I go out.