M45 Pleiades

[f33n3y]

Hi,

First post on SGL so hello everyone and thanks for all your posts. They have helped me greatly to hit the ground running with my new hobby!

This is my first ever DS image taken on 4th night out with my scope. I spent the first 3 sessions practising setting up, polar aligning and imaging moon etc. Last night I nearly never ventured out because of the moon and cloudy forecast but so glad I did! When aligning my finderscope I stumbled upon M45 and decided to give it a bash. Managed around 40subs before clouds rolled in and moon came up but very chuffed with my first result!

Criticisms and advice more than welcome

 

Image + Processing:

M45 Pleiades

01/04/18, from back garden in southside of Glasgow

~40 x 30sec subs

10 Darks

DSS + Photoshop (Messed with curves, levels and used Gradient Xterminator)

 

Equipment:

Skywatcher 200PDS

HEQ5Pro mount

CanonEOS1200d

 

 

 

[Floater]

Welcome. Good to hear from you.

I’m visual only so will leave any comments about your images to those who know what they’re talking about ...

[Allinthehead]

Nice image. Welcome to the forum. 

[ollypenrice]

You've got things working nicely. This is not really a target for moonlight, and it looks as if the haze was getting to you as well, but you have good tracking and focus. I think your collimation might need a tweak, judging by the upper edges of the stars in this orientation.

GradX is good software but difficult to use on a target like this because the entire frame is suffused with nebulosity. We are now in 'galaxy season' so you'll have the opportunity to try it on some images with plain background sky. This makes it much easier to use and master.

Olly

[f33n3y]

11 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

You've got things working nicely. This is not really a target for moonlight, and it looks as if the haze was getting to you as well, but you have good tracking and focus. I think your collimation might need a tweak, judging by the upper edges of the stars in this orientation.

GradX is good software but difficult to use on a target like this because the entire frame is suffused with nebulosity. We are now in 'galaxy season' so you'll have the opportunity to try it on some images with plain background sky. This makes it much easier to use and master.

Olly

Thanks for the pointers Olly!

I was certainly battling haze and low cloud towards the end. Glad my focus was okay though as I haven't got a bahtinov yet so just zooming on stars to focus.

I had used a laser collimator at the end of my last session but as i'm having to dismantle and reassemble my set up each time, there's every chance I could have knocked it. Also didn't have time to setup laptop for BackyardEOS so was touching the camera to shoot (albeit with a 10sec timer).

I'm looking forward to attempting my first galaxy. Do you have any recommendations for a first target? Andromeda is obscured by trees for me at the moment.

Andy

[ollypenrice]

11 hours ago, f33n3y said:

Thanks for the pointers Olly!

I was certainly battling haze and low cloud towards the end. Glad my focus was okay though as I haven't got a bahtinov yet so just zooming on stars to focus.

I had used a laser collimator at the end of my last session but as i'm having to dismantle and reassemble my set up each time, there's every chance I could have knocked it. Also didn't have time to setup laptop for BackyardEOS so was touching the camera to shoot (albeit with a 10sec timer).

I'm looking forward to attempting my first galaxy. Do you have any recommendations for a first target? Andromeda is obscured by trees for me at the moment.

Andy

Markarian's chain is a nice one. The Leo Triplet also.

Olly