Challenge #2 - M45, The Pleiades.

[Adrena1in]

Hi all,

Congratulations to RLD for winning Challenge #1, with his excellent photo of the moon, Venus and Jupiter.

RLD's nomination for the subject of Challenge #2 is star cluster M45, The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters. (Also known as Subaru in Japan, so this is appropriate, what with Subaru withdrawing from Rallying recently.)

Don't worry about images you've seen in the past of M45. Deep exposures show glorious swirls of blue reflection nebulosity. But you don't need to reveal this to get a good image. M45 still looks good in widefield images, or as just a quick exposure revealing the seven sisters. (I took some shots at 600mm the other night, and was able to see the stars with very quick (sub 1-second) exposures.)

Here's a link to some details on M45 if you need them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(star_cluster)

We've decided that images taken in the past are allowable, to try and get as many entrants as possible. You have to have taken the image yourself of course!

I was going to suggest we let this run until midnight on new years eve. Ideally it would be nice if we could get one challenge each month, starting on the first day of the month and ending on the last day. The winner of the M45 challenge will choose the target for February, while an additional target, (will perhaps take suggestions on what that could be), shall be the January challenge. Does that makes sense?

Anyway, good luck with shooting M45, (unless you're digging out a previous photo), and post the submission here.

Thanks, and Clear Skies,
Tim.

[Sorarse]

Sounds good. Keep my fingers crossed for clear skies, as the only photo I have at the moment is of M42 (and several of the moon).

[Celestron]

Going from first of month to last would be a very convient idea . I have had clouds alot lately and alot coming up between now and the Jan 1 so i'll be lucky if i even get to scope . Maybe a WF if possible depending the weather . But however sounds like a good challenge even if i only get to see whats posted here .

[chris.bailey]

Sounds good. Keep my fingers crossed for clear skies, as the only photo I have at the moment is of M42 (and several of the moon).

Yeah I am up for this one IF we get some clear sky between now and then. Need a good night for M45 to have a chance of picking out some of those finer filaments.

[strgazr27]

This was taken with my 7" f/4 Astrograph and the 40D.

Image Spec:

52 X 300 sec
ISO800
CLS/CCD Light Pollution Filter
7" f/4
Modified 40D
Stacked with Registar
Converted and calibrated in Images Plus
Post processing with PSCS2

http://strgazr27.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p686014891-5.jpg

[FarmerDave8N]

[quote=strgazr27;6908062]This was taken with my 7" f/4 Astrograph and the 40D.
HAH! As soon as I saw the target, I *knew* you were going to use this photo! Excellent. :)

[FarmerDave8N]

Hmmm, munged the quote in that last message, and now it won't let me edit it. If a mod could delete it for me, that would be great!

This was taken with my 7" f/4 Astrograph and the 40D.

HAH! As soon as I saw the target, I *knew* you were going to use this photo! Excellent.

[kaitanium]

This was taken with my 7" f/4 Astrograph and the 40D.

Image Spec:

52 X 300 sec
ISO800
CLS/CCD Light Pollution Filter
7" f/4
Modified 40D
Stacked with Registar
Converted and calibrated in Images Plus
Post processing with PSCS2

http://strgazr27.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p686014891-5.jpg



dannnnnggg. so i could do this too on my 8in cpc800? amazing!!
was that a combo of 4 hrs of shooting? (if i did my math right)

[Nighthound]

Wow, that's deep Bobby. Beautiful work.

Since this object is a better late fall object for the locations I shoot I likely won't get a chance in the next couple weeks to better my last attempt. My goal is to eventually get a good 5 hours on this one.

Takahashi Sky 90 II / Losmandy G-11 wGemini / Canon 20D(unmod) @ ISO 1600 / 26 x 240 sec. exposures unguided / Noel's Astro Tools

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/Nighthd/PS%20Gallery/m4508strtchxx2.jpg

[kaitanium]

O_O

[BobOh]

Takahashi Sky 90 II / Losmandy G-11 wGemini / Canon 20D(unmod) @ ISO 1600 / 26 x 240 sec. exposures unguided / Noel's Astro Tools

Nighthound, I've seen it before in your posts. What do you mean by "unguided"?

[Nighthound]

Nighthound, I've seen it before in your posts. What do you mean by "unguided"?

It means I'm not using any means of tracking correction, i.e. a guide scope/camera or by manually guiding. The mount is still tracking in sidereal, I'm just not assisting the mounts tracking software by sending corrections to help it stay put so that no movement is detected in the images. A very careful balance and alignment(and drift alignment) is necessary to get the mount prepared for unguided exposures. I also replaced my mount's factory worm gears with high precision gears and spent a lot of time getting them adjusted to where they are today. I'm only shooting at 407mm FL so 4 minutes unguided is not really a huge accomplishment, but I'll take it on those nights when I'm too lazy to mess with a guide scope, camera and laptop in the field.

[BobOh]

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that extra correction is often needed for the tracking. Beautiful shots you post up BTW.

[Adrena1in]

I didn't realize that extra correction is often needed for the tracking.
If you have perfect tracking then guiding isn't necessary, but it's hard to get it perfect. Having a second scope tracking a star, and feeding back to the mount to adjust accordingly, means you can pretty much expose for as long as you like and the target will remain stationery.

Oh, and sweet jeezHUZZ, those images are stunning you guys. :cool:

[kaitanium]

i wanna be just like you guys when i grow up

[PM01]

I really want to try this target with the Takahashi 180 2.8 astrograph. Would be quite interesting in a dark country sky. Or I'll just bring out my Astro Physics, use the Tak 106 as a guidescope and see what I'll get.

But the weather has been yucky in the Chicago area. :(

[john-in-japan]

What is the orangish dot at about eight o'clock?
It seems different that the others.
John

[PM01]

It's one of the stars. Natural color.

[Adrena1in]

I really want to try this target with the Takahashi 180 2.8 astrograph. Would be quite interesting in a dark country sky. Or I'll just bring out my Astro Physics, use the Tak 106 as a guidescope and see what I'll get.

But the weather has been yucky in the Chicago area. :(

Not been great in the UK lately either...clear almost every day for the last few days, which has been good over Christmas, but at night it's always seemed a bit phuggy, plus quite windy also. I've nothing to show of M45 except a small animation, so I hope you manage to get something posted, as it's currently only a two-horse race.

[fritzd]

Awesome shots!

[renderwerks]

Have only shot M45 once... Just got Noel's Astro tools and played a bit:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3212/3152153057_4b9fd2ed76_o.jpg
4x90sec, ISO 800, Sigma 70-200 f2.8 @ 103mm - f4.0, 100% crop

[chris.bailey]

Well we have had two nights in a row when the stars have been visible but with low murky conditions and a thin level of high cloud to contend with. The latter really increased the sky glow levels making the more subtle element of M45 hard to extract in post processing. I'm not suree adding further data in these conditions would add anything further. A light pollution filter may have helped a bit but I dont have one with the necessary threads as yet for the Tak.

http://www.pbase.com/chris_bailey/image/107628473.jpg

3 hours of 5minute and 6minute subs. Takahashi FSQ85-EDX at 450mm with Starlight Express M25C. Guided with PHD with SX Lodestar on Williams Optics ZS70 all on HEQ6 Pro Mount. Stacked in DSS and processed with Pixinsight.

[FarmerDave8N]

Here's my feeble attempt:
http://astrojargon.net/files/images/m45high.jpg

This is a whopping 48 minutes (12x4 minute subs), so I had to stretch the heck out of this, and predictably, it's really noisy. I'd love to have spent more time on this, but weather and real life (and trees) intervened. Oh, and the fact that this was my first imaging since September didn't help (now *where* did I put that adapter?). :)

Details:
Canon 40D, unmodified
12x4 minute subs, ISO 800
Stellarvue 70ED, no FF/FR
Doc Clay supercharged Atlas EQ-G guided with PHD via ST-4 port using a Meade DSI I and my Orion 80ED mounted side-by-side.
Captured with the EOS Utility
Framing and focus with Nebulosity
Stacking with DSS (tried both median and kappa sigma clipping, I think this is the k-s version) - darks + flats applied.
PP in PSCS3 + with Neil Carboni's Space Noise and Deep Space Noise actions.

[Adrena1in]

Thanks for all the entries, apologies for being unreliable in setting the voting going for Challenge #2...I'll try and get that done soon so we can have a winner choose the February Challenge.

How about a quick vote now on what should be the January Challenge?

Or shall we not bother with a monthly thing...just do one after the other?

[renderwerks]

I like the idea of having one month to get the image(s). With clouds, the moon, and some having to make a trip to a dark spot, many would miss out if having less than a month to capture, stack and edit an image.

Then there is the time needed to make a thread in the competitions area, and allow ample time for people to view the images and cast their vote.

After all of this, the winner needs to pick the next target, and we start all over again.

I propose that we allow four weeks or one calendar month for acquiring, editing and posting your image; one week to get the competition thread made; two weeks to vote; and one week for the winner to name the next target.

That would give us a challenge every two months. I'd even be willing to toss $5 (optional?, for entry into the contest) into say, a PayPal account (or whatever works) as a prize "pot" for winning (or top three?) the contest.

I can spend some time pretty much daily (some days more than others :lol:) here on POTN helping to facilitate various activities, and would be glad to do so.

Please, any thoughts or alternate ideas?

[Adrena1in]

I can spend some time pretty much daily (some days more than others :lol:) here on POTN helping to facilitate various activities, and would be glad to do so.

That would be great, because it can be a fair bit of work I found and I don't always have time. Not sure about cash-prizes just yet to be honest though! ;)

Right, let's get the voting post sorted. I'll do it in the Celestial forum I think, as I don't reckon the interest was that great on the Competitions forum.

[renderwerks]

Right, let's get the voting post sorted. I'll do it in the Celestial forum I think, as I don't reckon the interest was that great on the Competitions forum.

Good idea. It might be benificial to post a link to the voting thread in the competitions forum as others may be unaware of the contest if they haven't visited the celestial forum.

My thought behind a $5 buy in was to spur interest in the competition and astro in general. Even if it was just $1, most folks sit up and take notice if there is cash involved... ;)

Anyone have any thoughts on my proposed time frame for the competitions?

[chris.bailey]

I think one every other month would be enough though I may suggest that the winner of the competition in January picks the target for March i.e. roll one month forward effectively giving 8 weeks for imaging. In the UK we are lucky to get one decent night per month so having 8 weeks would give us a bit of a better chance :-)

[Adrena1in]

Good idea, I've posted a thread in the competitions forum, with a link to the voting thread.