Auriga and Taurus

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I have over two hours of data on the Flaming Star and surrounding clusters at 135mm that I just can't get to stack.  So I went back to some old data that I've never been able to get a decent image out of previously and had another go at it, here's a couple of 50mm lens shots.

The Milky Way running through Auriga with Capella at top left and the Flaming Star nebula just showing on the right. Not great but I like how I can easily relate this image to what can be seen by eye, with the bright stars circling the frame.

The California Nebula and Pleiades in Taurus with some of the surrounding dark nebulae, Patrick Gilliland has a much deeper and more detailed mosaic of the same region here. There is a blue tint at the right hand corner which is the extended reflection nebulosity just showing, it can be seen more clearly in this 200mm lens shot.

Something I've been playing with recently is comparing widefields with the SFD infrared dust map in World Wide Telescope, it matches up quite well as this wider view of the same region shows.

Finally, here's a closer view of the California Nebula to complete the set, taken with a 200mm lens.

Hope you find the above interesting, if I can ever get my Flaming Star data to stack I'll add it to the set. I'm downloading a demo of Maxim DL to see if that helps, so fingers crossed...

[wimvb]

Great set of images. Also interesting to see sfd ir together with your images.

Thanks for sharing.