The Beautiful Blue Sisters- M45 (1.8 hrs RGB)

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

Greeting everyone!

 

I have been doing a lot of reprocessing with PixInsight as I just installed it a month ago. Im really starting to get the hang of it, and I must admit.. The learning curve isn't as steep as I had originally expected. My biggest nemesis is a noisy background and small stars. I'm starting to get the hang of star masks but maintaining low background noise through processing is definitely more difficult.

 

Anyways, this is repro of Messier 45.

This image was taken with a 102mm APO by William Optics, an ATIK 414ex Mono, and an Orion Atlas. I  gathered just under 2 hours of data using Astrodon RGB filters under bortle 4 skies using 300s-600s exposures. 

 

Hope you all enjoy and clear skies!

 

[russ]

Beautiful image. Love the star colours and nebulosity.

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

8 minutes ago, russ said:

Beautiful image. Love the star colours and nebulosity.

Thanks, Russ. That's great to hear. I was really trying to create good color in the stars

[Demonperformer]

Yes, you have captured a lot of nebulosity there. Nice one.

[Petergoodhew]

Spectacular!

[wimvb]

Great image! Re noise reduction, have you seen Jon Ristas tutorials?

https://jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/

Especially noise reduction part 2.

Cheers,

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

9 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Great image! Re noise reduction, have you seen Jon Ristas tutorials?

https://jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/

Especially noise reduction part 2.

Cheers,

That is an excellent source! I will definitely look into that. THANKS!

[gingergeek]

Nice image

[Whistlin Bob]

Was drawn into this by the lovely image- well done @Mr_42tr0nomy!

Ended up reading the John Rista tutorials- which look really helpful. Thanks @wimvb.

[ollypenrice]

Easy to like! The key to a good M45, in my view, is getting the subtle red hints right and they strike me as being bang on here.

I'll never be a fan of PI masks. I prefer to do a global mod in PS as a bottom layer and then let it through where I want it by erasing the top. However, there is nothing wrong with your result. Quite the opposite, it's very good and, above all, natural.

Olly

[Mr_42tr0nomy]

On 4/3/2018 at 01:27, ollypenrice said:

Easy to like! The key to a good M45, in my view, is getting the subtle red hints right and they strike me as being bang on here.

I'll never be a fan of PI masks. I prefer to do a global mod in PS as a bottom layer and then let it through where I want it by erasing the top. However, there is nothing wrong with your result. Quite the opposite, it's very good and, above all, natural.

Olly

Thank you Olly! I agree with you about the subtle red hints. I don’t see it too much in other photos and I certainly didnt think anyone would notice my attempts in revealing it! 

[celestron8g8]

Nice capture and edit !