A Bonus M45

[StuartJPP]

I captured some M45 data last Friday and Saturday while I was waiting for my main imaging target, VdB29 and VdB31, to rise and clear some trees. I wasn't really too bothered about the M45 data that I had captured as it was more a case of ensuring things were working properly for the main target. However after inspection the subs appeared to be fairly decent and there was enough of them to warrant processing to see what was there.

M45 has been done to death, but it is still a very nice region of the sky and brings back fond memories of my early imaging attempts.

 

Equipment:
Baader modified Canon EOS 6D
Canon 500mm f/4 L IS Lens @ f/4
Avalon Instruments M-Zero Mount
QHY5L-II-M and QHY miniGuideScope for guiding
DIY PoleMaster for polar alignment
APT for Data Acquisition + Dithering + Framing
PHD2 for guiding

Acquisition Details:
45x 5 minute subs @ ISO800 (~3.75 hours)
72x Bias
37x Flats
No Darks

Conditions:
SQM ~20.75
Temperature -4°C

Imaged just outside Horncastle in Lincolnshire on the evening of the 29th and 30th November 2019.

Thanks for looking.........
 

 

 

What the subs generally looked like.

[Ceph]

That is a beauty, Great job

[geoflewis]

To me that's a cracking M45 Stuart, definitely a bonus if it was just test data 👍. I also like the way you presented the sub image inspections, so what tool(s) did you use for that? Geof

[StuartJPP]

14 hours ago, Ceph said:

That is a beauty, Great job

Thank you...

8 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

To me that's a cracking M45 Stuart, definitely a bonus if it was just test data 👍. I also like the way you presented the sub image inspections, so what tool(s) did you use for that? Geof

Thanks Geof, this is the preview window in Adobe Bridge. It doesn't display all 4 corners like in this image, just a single zoomed section. This image is a composite of 5 screen grabs where I have zoomed in to each corner as well as the centre.

Regarding the "test data" I ended up with about 1.5 hours on each evening waiting for the main target to rise, so although it is test data, but of course still usable data, 1.5 hours worth of data probably wouldn't have been worth it, but 3 hours over the two days is.

[Allinthehead]

Beautiful M45.

[Laurin Dave]

As they say up that way.... Now then.. that is a very nice wide field M45 

Dave

[simmo39]

Real nice that!

[Brian28]

Yes that's a nice shot ..  👍

[kirkster501]

Fabulous.  Lovely to see the background nebula that is often overlooked on this subject.  Have to be very delicate not to process it out!

[jjosefsen]

Great image! I think I need to redo mine from scratch, I think I have been trying too DBE all that background nebulosity out :S

[bottletopburly]

excellent image stuart well done 

 

[MartinB]

That is right up there with the best Stuart.  Superbly processed, the dust is spectacular

[StuartJPP]

On 06/12/2019 at 14:03, Allinthehead said:

Beautiful M45.

Thank you...

On 06/12/2019 at 14:17, Laurin Dave said:

As they say up that way.... Now then.. that is a very nice wide field M45 

Dave

Thanks Dave.

23 hours ago, simmo39 said:

Real nice that!

Glad you like it...

22 hours ago, Brian28 said:

Yes that's a nice shot ..  👍

Thank you 👍

22 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

Fabulous.  Lovely to see the background nebula that is often overlooked on this subject.  Have to be very delicate not to process it out!

Thanks...

22 hours ago, jjosefsen said:

Great image! I think I need to redo mine from scratch, I think I have been trying too DBE all that background nebulosity out :S

Yes, DBE is a powerful tool and should be used sparingly.

21 hours ago, bottletopburly said:

excellent image stuart well done 

 

Thank you...

17 hours ago, MartinB said:

That is right up there with the best Stuart.  Superbly processed, the dust is spectacular

Thanks Martin.

 

 

I was quite surprised how little processing I had to do on this, I think that a few more hours and it would almost be complete right after stacking and stretching.