🌌 #16: Venus, Andromeda, and the Orion Nebula

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🔭 A Night of Three Targets

This session was all about progress: revisiting old targets with new techniques, pushing my equipment a little further, and once again learning how rushed setups come at a cost. The three objects on the menu: Venus, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and the Orion Nebula (M42).

🔮 Venus – Bright but Unforgiving

This was a “grab it while you can” morning session. I rushed the setup — polar alignment was rough, balance was an afterthought, and Venus was already rising fast. Finding it in the scope with my modded Logitech webcam wasn’t easy, and keeping it in frame was even harder. With the 3× Barlow, any tracking errors were magnified. Venus would slide out of view every time I thought I had the focus dialed in.

The exposure settings weren’t helping either. Venus is so bright that even small adjustments made huge differences — and with SharpCap unable to directly control the Logitech settings, I had to switch back and forth between interfaces to tweak “brightness” and “sensitivity.” Not ideal.

In the end, I managed one video file. Focus was shaky. The planet drifted. I had to cut the clip into smaller segments where Venus actually stayed in frame so AutoStakkert!2 could process them. The final result was a blurry white blob — but it clearly showed the phase of Venus, and that alone was a small win.

🌌 M31 – Andromeda Galaxy Revisited

Since my first DSLR image of Andromeda, I’d been itching to return — this time with a better understanding of focus, framing, and processing.

On this night, I managed to place M31 diagonally across the frame to capture as much of it as possible within my limited field of view. It was cold — just above 0°C — and after a few ISO 1600 test shots to check framing, I settled on 40× 60-second subs at ISO 400.

I had originally aimed for an hour of data, but some bad frames forced me to throw a few out, leaving me with just enough to work with.

🌠 M42 – The Jewel of the Sky

With Andromeda complete, I turned to the east and caught sight of Orion rising. I had tried M42 before in a brief test, but this time I wanted a full run — well, at least an hour’s worth.

Again, I shot 60-second subs at ISO 400, collecting 31 light frames. The framing was quick and imprecise, but I just wanted to capture as much detail as I could before calling it a night.

đŸ§Ș Processing

Venus

The final image wasn’t impressive in sharpness or detail, but it did clearly show Venus in phase. Focusing and exposure were way off — likely due to the overly bright image and rushed setup. The lesson? This setup needs better camera control and a steadier mount. I’m seriously considering a new camera for planetary work.

M31 – Andromeda

Processing V1
Processing V2
Processing V3

This target was all about balance — pulling out structure in the galaxy’s disc without crushing faint details or blowing out the background.

One common pitfall is misjudging the “background,” which is actually filled with faint halo and dust structure. Set the black point too aggressively, and you erase valuable data. With just 40 minutes of usable subs, I had to stretch carefully to preserve detail while keeping gradients and noise under control.

I went through several versions:

  • The first was overstretched, trying too hard to pull contrast from the clouds.
  • Later attempts were more refined. I introduced star reduction using GIMP2’s “minimum” filter, which helped keep bloated stars in check after stretching.
  • In the third version, I tried a new trick: increasing saturation before stretching, which enhanced the star colors without introducing artifacts. A definite step forward.

M42 – Orion Nebula

M42’s processing challenge lies in the huge dynamic range between its bright core and faint outer regions. With only 31 minutes of data, pushing the outer nebulosity brought out a lot of noise. Meanwhile, the bright core was easily overexposed.

I experimented with layer masking — editing the core and outer regions separately, then combining them in a balanced composite. Another version involved stacking two separately processed images, using transparency to merge the results.

Despite the limited data, M42 still impressed me. It’s just so photogenic — dust lanes, bright stars, glowing gas
 the full package. This is exactly the kind of image you can show non-astro friends when they ask what you’re doing freezing outside at midnight.

🧠 Conclusion

Venus:
The Logitech webcam just isn’t cutting it for planetary work anymore. Poor focus control, awkward software, and exposure issues make it frustrating to use. Time to start looking into a better planetary camera.

M31:
Much improved over my first attempt! Even with limited exposure time, I managed to highlight cloud structures and pick up star-forming regions. Star colors are more visible, the contrast is better controlled, and the image feels more natural. The only downside: my scope’s field of view is still too small to frame Andromeda comfortably. Stitching frames or upgrading to a larger sensor might be the next step.

M42:

A true gem. Easy to shoot, visually striking, and forgiving even when conditions aren’t ideal. I’m happy with the progress here — but next time, I want to dedicate a full night to it and capture enough data to really do it justice.

Clear skies,
Chris