M45 - The Pleiades

[Taman]

My first image of the beautiful Pleiades, taken over 2 nights.

I found it very difficult to bring out the dust without introducing noise and blowing out the stars. Very pleased with the result.

70 x 180s with darks and no flats. Total exposure time 3.5 hours.

William Optics Zenithstar 73, ZWO ASI294MC Pro, Optolong L-Pro filter.

Thanks for looking!

Tony.

[Tommohawk]

Gosh is it Pleiades time of year already?!

Lovely image and I agree for a bright blighter it can be tricky to process - I think you've done a great job, especially as only 3.5 hours. I might have pushed the blue a bit but maybe thats just me.

Nice job!

 

[fwm891]

Taman,

Nice image, especially a first attempt.

You might find that a simple UV/IR filter on objects like this are better than a dual/triband filter. You will build your exposure more quickly and you will get more background detail too.

The dual/tri band filters are great with OSC cameras on nebulae with or without a moon. When the moon is down then I remove NB filters in favour of a UV/IR cut filter for objects like the Pleiades.

Francis

[Taman]

2 hours ago, Tommohawk said:

Gosh is it Pleiades time of year already?!

Lovely image and I agree for a bright blighter it can be tricky to process - I think you've done a great job, especially as only 3.5 hours. I might have pushed the blue a bit but maybe thats just me.

Nice job!

 

Thanks Tom!

Yes it's that time of year, early hours of the morning for me due to trees being in the way!

Not too sure about the blue. I like to keep my images looking natural, although it's an easy tweak. I think more exposure time will help.

Tony.

[Taman]

2 hours ago, fwm891 said:

Taman,

Nice image, especially a first attempt.

You might find that a simple UV/IR filter on objects like this are better than a dual/triband filter. You will build your exposure more quickly and you will get more background detail too.

The dual/tri band filters are great with OSC cameras on nebulae with or without a moon. When the moon is down then I remove NB filters in favour of a UV/IR cut filter for objects like the Pleiades.

Francis

Thanks Francis!

Interesting about the UV/IR cut. I may be wrong, but I thought the L-Pro was a light pollution filter? I've used it under all sorts of sky conditions and it generally improves the contrast of my images.

Tony.