Pleiades First Attempt

[MarkAR]

Thought I would try to get some subs of the Pleiades to see if I can pull out any nebulosity. Couldn't get my iPolar working (idiot settings in Lat and Long) so it was a bit hit and miss.

Just used my Canon 80d and SkyGuider and hoped tracking would be close enough. Managed 145x30s subs plus BD&F's. Surprised how little I could stretch out of the final stacked image used Siril and my first attempt with Gimp.

[Pankaj]

How is your sky darkness on bortle scale ? I have experienced that that this cluster is the easiest to capture provided the skies are dark. However, if the skies are not clear, then no matter how much I try, nebulosity never shows up.

Here's what I shot from Bortle 3 sky. capture details are mentioned on the photo. As can be seen, my equipment is relatively modest, camera was canon unmodded and no filters used. Exposure too is modest.

[MarkAR]

I think I'm Bortle 4 or 5, looks like i'd need darker skies and really clear viewing to get anything better.

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

32 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

I think I'm Bortle 4 or 5, looks like i'd need darker skies and really clear viewing to get anything better.

I am a bortle 6 and I did this the first evening I got the NEQ6 mount, 40 2s exposures @iso1600 on my Canon 6D.

[des anderson]

That`s something to be proud of, well done. Des

[MarkAR]

59 minutes ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

I am a bortle 6 and I did this the first evening I got the NEQ6 mount, 40 2s exposures @iso1600 on my Canon 6D.

Nice image and its showing more nebulosity than mine.

Just thought that it could be the ruddy great white street light the other side of the house that didn't help me.

Also might try reprocessing later, see if that makes a difference.

Edited March 25, 2020 by MarkAR

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

4 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Nice image and its showing more nebulosity than mine.

Just thought that it could be the ruddy great white street light the other side of the house that didn't help me.

Also might try reprocessing later, see if that makes a difference.

That was taken on the upper patio, sheltered from next doors bathroom light, most of the rest of the stuff in a more open space of the garden, are showing light and dark areas that can't be removed by flats, so I have been thinking this morning if it is due to excessive light, hitting the focus tube, our southern aspect has an industrial site about 2 miles away, and looking back north is next doors bathroom window, lets put it this way I don't need extra light to adjust stuff, so it is possible its effecting the the light, i am going to see if I can make a dew shield to try and block any extra light, if the light patterns are better it will confirm I think thats is what is causing the patterns.

[Pankaj]

1 hour ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

I am a bortle 6 and I did this the first evening I got the NEQ6 mount, 40 2s exposures @iso1600 on my Canon 6D.

Lovely shot !!

[don4l]

12 hours ago, MarkAR said:

Thought I would try to get some subs of the Pleiades to see if I can pull out any nebulosity. Couldn't get my iPolar working (idiot settings in Lat and Long) so it was a bit hit and miss.

Just used my Canon 80d and SkyGuider and hoped tracking would be close enough. Managed 145x30s subs plus BD&F's. Surprised how little I could stretch out of the final stacked image used Siril and my first attempt with Gimp.

 

I suspect that something is going awry in the porcessing.

If you are capturing in Raw mode  then you can use the Canon software to convert one of the subs to a tiff.

Open the tiff in the Gimp and try "Colours" -> "Auto" -> "Equalise". 

You could also try "Colours" -> "Auto" -> "Colour Enhance".

These won't make a pretty picture, but it should give an indication of what is in the data.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I got these two from Bortle 5 skies. Provided you have enough data

 

Canon EOS 550D (modded), APM 80mm F/6 triplet with 0.8x reducer, 4 hours of data

 

ASI183MC, same optics, 2.5 hours of data

You can capture quite a lot of the nebulosity if you have loads of data

[MarkAR]

2 hours ago, don4l said:

I suspect that something is going awry in the porcessing.

If you are capturing in Raw mode  then you can use the Canon software to convert one of the subs to a tiff.

Open the tiff in the Gimp and try "Colours" -> "Auto" -> "Equalise". 

You could also try "Colours" -> "Auto" -> "Colour Enhance".

These won't make a pretty picture, but it should give an indication of what is in the data.

I"ll try that now, cheers.

[MarkAR]

Tried everything I could thing of and there just isn't anything more that my initial image.

[MarkAR]

Just finished another visit to Gimp and reprocessed the stretch a little differently.

There was a little more to be had.

 

The nasty glow at the bottom is the street light.

Edited March 26, 2020 by MarkAR