M45 LRGB

[Mike Hawtin]

Well this one has been in the oven a very long time which explains why some might find it overcooked!  It's a 4 panel C6 Hyperstar mosaic each panel 45 x 60 sec L.  The Luminance was taken in Nov 2012 but the original RGB taken through a 60mm triplet was very poor quality so I've replaced it with 14 x 120 sec RGB per panel taken through the Hyperstar and reprocessed it all from scratch.  As the image was being processed I began to wonder about the amount and colour of the background nebulosity, was it real or was it naff processing?  It prompted me to do a quick surf for more deep M45 images and this one in particular set my mind at ease

:

it's one of Rogelio Bernal Andreo's widefields so if it's good enough for him then it's deffo good enough for me!

Anyway I'm rambling again, I hope you like it and thanks for looking.

 

Mike

[ollypenrice]

Not just a load of old sisters! Splendid background sky there, Mike.

Olly

[laudropb]

Very nice image. Lots of interesting detail to catch the eye.

[Mike Hawtin]

Cheers chaps, I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

 

Mike

[toxic]

now that's beautiful set of sisters 

[Maximidius]

WOW...Spectacular M45. I cant believe how much of the faint stuff you've captured. Is that actually part of the reflection nebula, IFN, backround sky or all of the above? 

[Mike Hawtin]

Cheers Chris.  Maximidius, thanks for that.  The nebulosity in the image is a result of the movement of the cluster through space, it is passing through an interstellar cloud of cold gas and dust.  The blue colour is from the preferential reflection of the blue light of the hot young stars from the particles in the cloud, the striations around the bright stars is produced by the magnetic fields between these stars aligning the particles.  Fascinating stuff eh?  What a wonderful Universe we live in!

 

Mike