Jewel of the Sky

[DSLR AstroMod]

I noticed the faint twinkling of the Seven Sisters rising above a tree in my backyard a few nights ago, couldn't believe it was that time of year already, with Andromeda already riding high by midnight! http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Decided to do a season's first light on M45.
Imaged over 2 nights, 20-21 August 2009.
1st night, 22 exp. of 300s @ ISO 800 = 1hr50min.
2nd night, 25 exp. of 240s @ ISO 800 = 1hr40min.
Modded 450D with Astronomik UHC clip filter on Eq6 Syntrek w/ EQMOD.
WO 110ED APO.
All exposures unguided.

Stacked in DSS, post processed in PS and NeatImage/PixInsight LE.

Quite happy about the outcome, although the combined stack of 49 exposures didn't see any improvement over the 2nd nights 25?? http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif, so this image is just 1hr40 total exposure time.

Stacked using darks,bias and flats.

Also once again that annoying horizontal banding issue seems to have appeared! http://forum.skyatnightmagazine.com/image/s6.gif

Fairly happy with the outcome though http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif



http://i27.tinypic.com/2lmmn28.jpg

[chris.bailey]

Nice. Very nice considering its unguided!

Blimey is it that time already! Time to get the scope out of storage now the nights are drawing in.

Trying stacking without flats, darks etc and see if the banding is still present.

[Nighthound]

Very nice work, however your red channel is clipped and the saturation level is a bit high overall. It appears most of the banding is visible in the blue channel. Noel's astro tools(PS actions) does a good job at reducing banding, might be worth a look. I would check some of your RAW files to see if any banding is visible there, but I suspect it's occurring in the processing. I don't use DSS or darks/flats so I can't offer any suggestions or tips for adjustment in the stack.

Orion's up here a couple hours before sunrise now, won't be long until winter skies make imaging more likely here again.

[themtkid]

amazing!