M45 Pleiades Nebula

[Catanonia]

Taken with the Skywatcher Pro II Gold ED80 @ 600mm F7.5

EOS 1000D Baader modded and Astronomik LP clip filter.

Guiding was difficult with the ED120 :), but managed to get the whispy reflection nebula on M45 ok.

After 4.5 hours, the data looks nice and smooth (ish)


Such a hard target to process and still not got it right. The best I can get, but still have those halo's around the bright main stars.

I cropped the frame to show the orange star bottom left to give idea's of the colour of the nebulocity of M45.

Such a beautiful target and fun to count with the naked eye.


Banged my head enough on it, must have tried all combinations of processing, my head hurts :)

Hope you like.

http://extraview.dnsalias.com/temp/M45.jpg

[DonR]

Very nice, Catanonia, you picked up quite a lot of nebulosity.

I'm not sure the LP filter isn't counter-productive for this object though. I shot it under Bortle Class 5 skies with no filter, and though the sky glow limited exposure time to 3 minutes at ISO 800, the blue nebulosity was still easily separated from the sky glow in post-processing. I haven't used the Astronomik LP filter but I understand it gives a blue-green cast, which would make it harder to separate the blue reflection nebulosity from the sky background.

[Catanonia]

Very nice, Catanonia, you picked up quite a lot of nebulosity.

I'm not sure the LP filter isn't counter-productive for this object though. I shot it under Bortle Class 5 skies with no filter, and though the sky glow limited exposure time to 3 minutes at ISO 800, the blue nebulosity was still easily separated from the sky glow in post-processing. I haven't used the Astronomik LP filter but I understand it gives a blue-green cast, which would make it harder to separate the blue reflection nebulosity from the sky background.

Yes it does give a blue (ish) cast and is a bit of a problem. Perhaps might try next time without it. Prob is at my site, i would be limited to about 3 mins or less due to LP

[Celestron]

Very nice cat !!

[DonR]

Yes it does give a blue (ish) cast and is a bit of a problem. Perhaps might try next time without it. Prob is at my site, i would be limited to about 3 mins or less due to LP

Yes, I have the same problem. I find that for the faint stuff, cutting the ISO back and increasing the exposure time often helps if tracking, guiding and vibrations are under control, because it yields less noisy subs that are easier to work with. Of course it leads to longer nights too.

I have an original Orion Skyglow filter which has the same bandpass specs as the Astronomik, and I only find it really useful on the faint red stuff. I have just ordered a Skyglow imaging filter, which is similar in bandpass to the Hutech IDAS LPS, and I'm anxious to try it out.

[VIGER]

Excellent

[troypiggo]

Beautiful! I love that cluster. Not much you'll be able to do about the haloing around bright stars with your gear - same as me almost. Just something we have to accept with longer exposure times unfortunately.