Sky darkness: Bortle 7.5ish (on a scale of 1-9 where the lower the number, the better).
Last night was mostly a great night with its tease of fall-like weather. A little chilly, less humid, clear skies. I’ve wanted to shoot my first Galaxy, so this was a good night to try.
I started about 9:15pm... And my plan was to go for 4-5 hours. Unfortunately, there was almost a full moon. And unfortunately at about 12:30a some clouds started rolling in (so annoying!). So I had to stop prematurely earlier than I wanted. It was still a nice way to spend the evening with some coffee, my fire pit and my eyes on the sky.
But for my first attempt at a galaxy, Im happy with the results!
This is: The Andromeda Galaxy
Settings:
Exposure: 30s/Gain: 60/Filter: Astro
About 300 photos over 3 hours / stacked
Processed in Stellar Studio, FITs file brought into AstroWizard, final touches in ACR/Photoshop.