M31

Here's my take on M31, with a bit of a twist. There's an awesome group on Facebook and Discord dedicated to "hacking" the Seestar — but in a beneficial way! They’ve uncovered many features built into the Seestar that aren’t available in the official app. This talented, tech-savvy community has even developed an alternative version of the software that can run on your laptop. I set mine up on a spare Raspberry Pi, allowing me to control the Seestar directly from my PC, bypassing the official app.

This setup unlocks additional functionality like mosaics, scheduling, and integration with Stellarium, making it much more enjoyable to use. Below are my first attempts at capturing M31. The first image uses the Seestar in Alt-Az mode, while the second uses it on an EQ mount over two nights. Each panel is about an hour of data, stacked in Siril and stitched in ASTAP. It took a fair amount of time to put together, and I plan to gather more data to enhance it further.

Facebook Group: Smart Telescope Underworld

M31 - Second Attempt

The Andromeda Galaxy, a large spiral galaxy close to the Milky Way, spans 152,000 light-years and is around 2.5 million light-years from Earth. Named for the Andromeda constellation, it’s also cataloged as M31 or NGC 224. Both Andromeda and the Milky Way have similar masses, each around a trillion times that of our Sun, though recent research suggests they might be closer in mass than once thought. Andromeda remains the largest galaxy in the Local Group, which includes our Milky Way.

Object: M31

Location: Portsmouth UK

Mount: EQ Mode

Bortle Scale: 6/7

Nights: 22th & 24thOctober 2024

Total Subs: 3 x 3 panels of approx 1 hour

Seeing: Good

Fits Stacked: Siril

Post-ProcessingSteps :

Stacked in Siril, Stiched in ASTAP.

M31 - First Attempt