Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Barnard's Merope Nebula  ·  IC 349  ·  Maia Nebula  ·  Merope Nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  The star Atlas (27Tau)  ·  The star Celaeno (16Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17Tau)  ·  The star Merope (23Tau)  ·  The star Pleione (28Tau)  ·  The star Sterope I (21Tau)  ·  The star Taygeta (19Tau)  ·  The star ηTau
M45 Pleiades, Phil Ostroff
M45 Pleiades
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M45 Pleiades

M45 Pleiades, Phil Ostroff
M45 Pleiades
Powered byPixInsight

M45 Pleiades

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

Very happy with this image! I have been focusing on removing noise from my images over the last couple of weeks. My images are okay but have been plagued with noise even right after initial stacking, which has been annoying and seemed to get worse the further along the processing flow I got. So I revised my approach. First, more exposures! I have always been tempted to use just one night and get whatever images I can, so I'm now forcing myself to get as much data as possible over multiple nights. This image is a composite of 64 raw files taken over two nights. I also learned about dithering, which helps remove noise from time of capture and is frankly something I should have been doing all along. It slows down the acquisition timeframe but is worth it. I also purchased and utilized Topaz Denoise AI, which does a terrific job of removing noise and preserving detail. A combination of these three factors has made for a very clean image here, and I'm looking forward to revisiting with some other objects soon. 

The Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. The cluster is located 444 light years away and is about 17.5 light years across.

Image Details:
- Imaging Scope: William Optics 61mm Zenithstar II Doublet
- Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Color with UV/IR Blocking filter 
- Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval
- Guiding Camera: Orion Starshoot Auto Guider
- Acquisition Software: Sharpcap
- Guiding Software: PHD2
- Capture Software: SharpCap Pro (LiveStack mode with dithering)
- Light Frames: 30*2 mins @ 100 Gain, Temp -20C, 36x3 mins @ 150 Gain, Temp -20C
- Dark Frames: 32*4 mins, 40x2 mins
- Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
- Processed in PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Denoise AI

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M45 Pleiades, Phil Ostroff