The Pleiades (M45) in Luminance & Blue
Dec 10, 2017 02:03:35 #
Shot my first astrophotography in four months tonight; wahoo! Decided to retrain myself with a relatively easy target, The Pleiades.
Setup the WO Megrez 90 w/ 0.8x reducer/flattener, Baader filters and mono ATIK Infinity on a Celestron AVX mount, not guided. Shot 30x60 sec. with an IR/UV filter (Luminance) and 17x60 sec. with a Blue filter. Cloud moved in at this point and shut me down!
Luminance and Blue sessions aligned, stacked and levels adjusted in ATIK's Infinity software. Lum. and Blue stacks aligned and merged to color in PixInsight. Postprocessed in Lightroom.
Enjoy!
bwa
Setup the WO Megrez 90 w/ 0.8x reducer/flattener, Baader filters and mono ATIK Infinity on a Celestron AVX mount, not guided. Shot 30x60 sec. with an IR/UV filter (Luminance) and 17x60 sec. with a Blue filter. Cloud moved in at this point and shut me down!
Luminance and Blue sessions aligned, stacked and levels adjusted in ATIK's Infinity software. Lum. and Blue stacks aligned and merged to color in PixInsight. Postprocessed in Lightroom.
Enjoy!
bwa
Dec 10, 2017 14:16:07 #
I never thought of this one as easy, looks great, it’s on my bucket list. What was the effective focal ratio on this?
Dec 10, 2017 15:19:16 #
It's Beautiful!
How can I get quad spires in my refractor?
I sometimes get dual, and can get starbursts, but never quads....
How can I get quad spires in my refractor?
I sometimes get dual, and can get starbursts, but never quads....
Dec 10, 2017 15:37:23 #
Not sure how Brian got these, but I’ve heard ppl make their own spider to put over the end of their refractors.
Dec 10, 2017 16:04:04 #
Europa wrote:
I never thought of this one as easy, looks great, it’s on my bucket list. What was the effective focal ratio on this?
The WO Megrez 90 with 0.8x reducer is about 500mm focal length. 400mm FL would better frame the cluster.
It is an easy target to FIND, not necessarily easy to image. Its reflection nebulosity is fairly faint compared to the brightness of its stars!
Wiki: "Under ideal observing conditions, some hint of nebulosity may be seen around the cluster, and this shows up in long-exposure photographs. It is a reflection nebula, caused by dust reflecting the blue light of the hot, young stars." It wasn't until fairly recently that anyone even noticed the nebulosity and simply considered M45 to be an open star cluster.
It is a fun target!
bwa
Dec 10, 2017 16:13:25 #
SonnyE wrote:
It's Beautiful!
How can I get quad spires in my refractor?
I sometimes get dual, and can get starbursts, but never quads....
How can I get quad spires in my refractor?
I sometimes get dual, and can get starbursts, but never quads....
I have no idea how I got the star spikes!? I find they are more prominent if I have a really good focus with a refractor... Diffraction??
bwa
Dec 10, 2017 17:10:04 #
bwana wrote:
The WO Megrez 90 with 0.8x reducer is about 500mm ... (show quote)
Cool, did you crop this at all? So I could do similar exposure times on my Orion ED80T at 480 and f6.
Dec 10, 2017 17:14:55 #
Europa wrote:
Cool, did you crop this at all? So I could do similar exposure times on my Orion ED80T at 480 and f6.
Minor cropping because the Luminance and Blue were offset a touch. 480 FL should work nicely!
bwa
Dec 10, 2017 19:00:26 #
bwana wrote:
I have no idea how I got the star spikes!? I find they are more prominent if I have a really good focus with a refractor... Diffraction??
bwa
bwa
Got your leg... Pullin it....
Naw I was just pickin on you. I thought you put them in in Post Processing.
Once in a great while some seem to develope for me, but mostly just two.
And only on really bright stars.
But the nebulousity seems to escape me on darker nebulae.
Dec 11, 2017 20:30:03 #
bwana wrote:
Shot my first astrophotography in four months toni... (show quote)
May I add my photograph of M 45 to this? I know it wont compare to yours, but I just shot this with my Star Adventurer guider and my Canon 6D and a 70 - 300 MM Tamron lens at 300mm. I took about 10 shots and stacked them. I think it came out well. Your opinion???
Dec 11, 2017 20:49:22 #
Railfan_Bill wrote:
May I add my photograph of M 45 to this? I know it wont compare to yours, but I just shot this with my Star Adventurer guider and my Canon 6D and a 70 - 300 MM Tamron lens at 300mm. I took about 10 shots and stacked them. I think it came out well. Your opinion???
That did come out nice, I’ve tried with a dslr and didn’t have such good luck.
Dec 11, 2017 22:42:37 #
Nicely shot.
I can count on one hand the number of times I have been able to pull in the nebulosity.
I know it's there, I just can't get my poo in a pile very often.
I like Bills shot as well.
Jim
I can count on one hand the number of times I have been able to pull in the nebulosity.
I know it's there, I just can't get my poo in a pile very often.
I like Bills shot as well.
Jim
Dec 11, 2017 23:09:57 #
Railfan_Bill wrote:
May I add my photograph of M 45 to this? I know it wont compare to yours, but I just shot this with my Star Adventurer guider and my Canon 6D and a 70 - 300 MM Tamron lens at 300mm. I took about 10 shots and stacked them. I think it came out well. Your opinion???
Not bad! What aperture, exposure and ISO did you use?
I know quite a few people use the 6D for astrophotography with good results.
bwa
Dec 12, 2017 01:04:32 #
bwana wrote:
Not bad! What aperture, exposure and ISO did you use?
I know quite a few people use the 6D for astrophotography with good results.
bwa
I know quite a few people use the 6D for astrophotography with good results.
bwa
I shot this at wide-open aperture - f5.6 and hoped for the best. My next try will be with my Sigma "bazooka" the 150-600 mm lens I want to see how well my tracker can handle this lens.
Dec 12, 2017 02:04:55 #
bwana wrote:
Shot my first astrophotography in four months toni... (show quote)
Absolutely awesome work Brian.
Was it the blue filter that picked up the Nebulosity so well???
Craig
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