Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Maia nebula  ·  Merope nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  The star Celaeno (16Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17Tau)  ·  The star Merope (23Tau)  ·  The star Sterope I (21Tau)  ·  The star Taygeta (19Tau)  ·  The star ηTau
M45 First Attempt at Astrophotography, Egg
M45 First Attempt at Astrophotography
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M45 First Attempt at Astrophotography

M45 First Attempt at Astrophotography, Egg
M45 First Attempt at Astrophotography
Powered byPixInsight

M45 First Attempt at Astrophotography

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

36 x 30s lights

13 x 30s darks

55 bias

18 flats

ISO 800

Bortle zone 6 - 7

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Skywatcher 102/500

Imaging cameras: Canon 50D

Mounts: Celestron Advanced VX

Software: PixInsight

Didn't have Magic Lantern installed on the camera at the time so I was limited to manual 30s exposures. I could have pushed another 4 stops to 4 minutes before saturation from light pollution, but my polar alignment wouldn't have been good enough anyway.

Still need to buy a polar scope to align the mount, looking through the hole where the polar scope is supposed to be doesn't really cut it...

The scope is a budget f5 achromat which has a lot of trouble focusing the blue channel, which made m45 a poor choice of target, while red is acceptable and green is relatively good.

DBR did a great job with the light pollution going from an incredible bright orange/red glow after stretching to this.

Single frame:

http://i.imgur.com/Tr4dXuI.jpg

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M45 First Attempt at Astrophotography, Egg