Data Acquisition:
100 x 500” Ha (13.8 hours)
038 x 500” OIII (5.2 hours)
055 x 300” Lum (4.5 hours)
Total Integration Time: 23.5 Hours

Stacked (Batch Stacking) in DSS
Post Processing / composition: PixInsight / GIMP2 / Raw Therapee
Software: EOS Backyard / Stellarium / Astro Tortilla (plate solving) / PHD2.

M 31; Andromeda Galaxy amid the hydrogen alpha emission clouds in the background
Have always wondered if M 31 surrounding regions were just black blanket filled with stars! This encouraged me to investigate the matter. Have come across a research paper by a leading observatory that indeed mentioned the existence of Ha regions named N1-N4 in the vicinity of M 31 in the constellation Andromeda. Of course these Ha regions are located within our Milky Way and just happened to be within the FOV.

Hence have embarked for the past 3 weeks or so to collect data in Ha. Once enough data has been collected, I stacked and processed the data. To my shock, the background came lively with beautiful red glow. However the galaxy itself seemed like a ginormous blood clot! After many attempts for correction, I had to finally revert to compositing the Ha stacked image with the stacked version of Lum + OIII. It wasn’t easy process, very challenging to my skills in post processing. In the end after numerous “trial and error” attempts, the final image came to be as you see in this post, which was convincing to me!