That night I spent 3 hours trying to capture the Andromeda Galaxy from my backyard

Last Thursday I finally got a clear sky here in Ohio and set up my little 80mm refractor to try and get Andromeda. I took about 60 frames at 30 seconds each, but my polar alignment was way off and half the shots came out with star trails. Ended up stacking just 20 decent frames in DeepSkyStacker, and the result looked like a fuzzy blob with a hint of blue. Has anyone else had way better luck with a different approach for tracking faint galaxies without a fancy mount?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_foster9d ago

Used to think you needed a thousand dollar mount to get anything decent. Then I picked up a used Star Adventurer for cheap and it changed everything. Your rig is fine, the tracking is what kills you with dim objects. Polar alignment is a real pain but once you nail it those 30 second subs turn into gold. Have you tried building a bahtinov mask for focusing? That fuzzy blob could become a real galaxy with just a better focus and tracking.

clark.alex9d ago

Nah, a good focuser matters way more than tracking. Cheap kits just frustrate new people.