andromeda galaxy and the pleiades

[rdking647]

both taken in my backyard just outside of austin texas.
249mm f4.9 lens on a sony a7iii

andromeda is a total exposure of 2 hours (480 15 second exposures) stacked togther
the pleiades is 1 hour (240 15 second shots)

[Ponietz]

1. Impressive, thanks!

[alwaysinasnit]

2. Truly awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Wow, my dear rdking!

This is really great! Deep space. Amazing!

Glorious, gorgeous and all that.

Thank you.

[Hoyt]

4. Wow. Thanks.

[Tree-Hugger]

5. WOW!!!

That is gorgeous. Thank you.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

6. Absolutely spectacular images..scrolled down hadn't expect such vividness, beauty--

..took my breath away--just wow!

Thanks. Paz

[relayerbob]

7. Well done!

[Bayard]

8. Simply amazing!

Thanks for posting.

[SheltieLover]

9. Stunningly gorgeous!

Ty for sharing!

[DonaldsRump]

10. I know nothing about photography: did you take these without a telescope?

This is amazing!

[rdking647]

16. i used a telephoto lens

[William Seger]

19. How are you tracking?

The Andromeda Galaxy and stars in that shot are impressively sharp for 15-second exposures. Beautiful!

I'm looking at a French site that estimates maximum exposure times to minimize star trails without tracking gear, and it recommends 0.8 to 1-second exposures for my Canon 250mm f/4.5. I haven't tried it yet.

[rdking647]

22. the camera was mounted on a star tracker

otherwise i would be limited to 2 second exposures

[Jack-o-Lantern]

11. Absolutely stunning! What is the galaxy below andromeda?

[rdking647]

17. its designated M110

its a satellite of andromeda (M31) and doesnt have a formal name

[Karadeniz]

12. Andromeda is gorgeous! Plug "Alex Grey Galactic Consciousness" into your computer. It's

Andromeda!

[orleans]

13. i love these pictures! they are absolutely wonderful! great job!!! n/t

[burrowowl]

14. Nice job

[JohnnyRingo]

15. Really good for an Earthbound shot.

Thanx for sharing.

[flamin lib]

18. I've admired and rec'd this as soon as I saw it.

I started down the road of astro photo but got interrupted when all my gear was stolen from my car after a late night night shoot. This just to say I have some small insight into what it what it takes.

So, not to take from the beauty of your work, but a technical question. Did you use a clock drive to record all those 15 sec exposures?

As an aside I showed my 6 year old daughter the Andromeda through a small Celestron and tried to explain how big the Cosmos was, how far away our nearest intergalactic neighbor is and she sort of misted up and said, "It makes my heart hurt I want to go there so much." A dear and favorite memory from 40 years ago.

Edit to add:

Orion is coming soon. If you catch it, will you share it with us please.

[rdking647]

20. ioptron skyguider pro mount

thats the tracking device i used.
Im waiting for orion. maybe in a month or so it will be better positioned. also next month theres a conjuction between jupiter and saturn

[flamin lib]

21. Thanks.

Gotta say you're good at declination and right ascension. That many exposures over that much time with the target framed so well is quite a feat. Hat's off to ya'!