
This is with data acquired in September and October 2018 from my backyard in Kitchener, Ontario. Using a Skywatcher Esprit 100mm triplet refractor and a Moravian G3-16200EC CCD camera.
I recently moved my astro setup to my backyard where there is less light pollution to contend with. While I reduce the impact of lights while imaging, I have 70ft trees that block half my sky. It was a trade off I made in order to have what I call a semi-permanent setup. It doesn’t require as much to get up and running now and I can image all night if weather permits. These benefits outweighed losing some of my sky, IMO. I’m still able to image a vast amount of targets though. M31 the Andromeda Galaxy is one such jewel of the night sky.
This is the first time I’ve imaged M31 with my new G3-16200EC CCD camera. It has a large chip and pixel size than the ASI 1600MMC cmos camera I was using previous. The image itself appears sharper and more colourful. I also find the stars look better, not as bloated, as with the ASI camera. You can view the previous M31 image here.

This image uses a synthetic luminance channel I created from the R-G-B channels. It should also be noted there is no H-alpha data in this as I did not have opportunity to collect it. That being said, the red nebulosity regions within M31 still stand out quite well.
Technical:
- Skywatcher Esprit 100mm APO triplet refractor, F5.5
- Moravian G3 16200EC CCD @ -10deg
- Optolong filters (Ha-R-G-B)
- Skywatcher EQ6 mount
- 6 hours / 5min subs
- SGP, PHD, EQmod softwares for acquisition
- Pixinsight 1.8 calibration, processing
- Seeing and transparency average

My story began more than 40 years ago looking up at the Moon with a small collapsible telescope my Father had. Encouraged by my parents, who bought me my very own telescope, a 4.5″ reflector, I began to explore the night sky from my family home backyard. Today I do astrophotography from my home in Kitchener, Ontario and also with remote telescopes located in New Mexico and Australia. Some of my images have won awards and have been featured online and in magazines.
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