The Pleiades (M45): Bortle 8, OSC, no filters

[Lee_P]

I've spent lots of time recently capturing faint nebulae, so it was nice to image something a bit brighter! Lots more info on my website, but I'll paste the key capture info below for those that don't want to click through.

 

 

For this image I used the Generalised Hyperbolic Stretch method by @mike1485 and @Gunshy, outlined here. It's well worth a look if you process using PixInsight.

 

* Dec 2021 – Jan 2022
* Bristol, UK (Bortle 8 )
* Telescope: Askar FRA400 f/5.6 Quintuplet APO Astrograph
* Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC-PRO
* Filter: none
* Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G
* Guide: William Optics 32mm; ZWO ASI 120MM Mini
* Control: ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF
* Software: PixInsight, Lightroom, Topaz DeNoise AI
* 660 x 120 seconds

Total integration time: 22 hours

By Lee Pullen

 

 

[Adam J]

Really very nice wish i had the time for 20 hour integrations these days, I take it that this is at F5.6 without the reducer then?

Adam

[Lee_P]

1 minute ago, Adam J said:

Really very nice wish i had the time for 20 hour integrations these days, I take it that this is at F5.6 without the reducer then?

Adam

Thanks, yep it was without the reducer. I spent five weeks on this project, and it was cloudy most of the time! I actually captured way more than 22 hours, but whittled it down so as to only have the best quality data in the stack. 

[scotty38]

32 minutes ago, Lee_P said:

Thanks, yep it was without the reducer. I spent five weeks on this project, and it was cloudy most of the time! I actually captured way more than 22 hours, but whittled it down so as to only have the best quality data in the stack. 

Great image!

As an aside, and I haven't tried it myself yet, but did you consider using the NormaliseScaleGradient script to maximise the frames to be used or even to "clean" them up prior?

[Lee_P]

3 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Great image!

As an aside, and I haven't tried it myself yet, but did you consider using the NormaliseScaleGradient script to maximise the frames to be used or even to "clean" them up prior?

Oh sure, I use NSG as standard now. It's great! 

[scotty38]

1 minute ago, Lee_P said:

Oh sure, I use NSG as standard now. It's great! 

Great thanks, I must give it a try too, I keep meaning to and then just run WBPP in its entirety and "forget again" 🙂

[simmo39]

V nice, puts my effort with same camera and scope to shame! but then I did only do just over an hour.

[Lee_P]

2 hours ago, simmo39 said:

V nice, puts my effort with same camera and scope to shame! but then I did only do just over an hour.

Add 21 more hours and then we'll compare 😁

[simmo39]

42 minutes ago, Lee_P said:

Add 21 more hours and then we'll compare 😁

Dont think I could manage that amount of time on a single target! lol