Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  16 Tau  ·  17 Tau  ·  18 Tau  ·  19 q Tau  ·  20 Tau  ·  21 Tau  ·  22 Tau  ·  23 Tau  ·  24 Tau  ·  25 eta Tau  ·  26 Tau  ·  27 Tau  ·  28 Tau  ·  Alcyone  ·  Asterope  ·  Atlas  ·  Barnard's Merope Nebula  ·  Celaeno  ·  Electra  ·  IC 349  ·  LBN 770  ·  LBN 771  ·  LBN 772  ·  LBN 776  ·  M 45  ·  Maia  ·  Maia Nebula  ·  Merope  ·  Merope Nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  And 13 more.
M45 TAU - The Pleiades - Revisiting seven sisters, while they’re wearing a veil …, Wouter Cazaux
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M45 TAU - The Pleiades - Revisiting seven sisters, while they’re wearing a veil …

M45 TAU - The Pleiades - Revisiting seven sisters, while they’re wearing a veil …, Wouter Cazaux
Powered byPixInsight

M45 TAU - The Pleiades - Revisiting seven sisters, while they’re wearing a veil …

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

20220109 - M45 TAU - The Pleiades - Revisiting seven sisters, while they’re wearing a veil …

What’s in the picture(s) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades
Quote: “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. It is among the star clusters nearest to Earth, it is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky

What was the experience
Ever since my 1st visit, last November, I wanted to revisit the seven sister. At the time, they were bathing in a haze, but I had managed to get a glimpse of their beauty.

As noted in my previous posts, conditions have been far less than ideal since then, cloudy nights, full moon on the occasional clear sky, with the seven sisters sitting quite close to the moon. On one night, I had to throw away the 160min of data, because of a clear moon-illuminated streak of haze across the seven sisters

Eventually, I captured 240min of data across 3 nights, tainted by a cloudy haze and a full moon, but salvageable through the processing.

I had expected to get more of the surrounding nebulosity. Stretching the image even further, the nebulosity becomes visible, but then my seven sisters are bloated. But, I'm leaving them in their beauty, I’ve settled for this image … for now …

In the background, UGC2838 is photobombing Electra

How it was done
Scope: TS-94 APO (FL 414mm)
Mount: EQ6-R Pro
Camera: ASI2600MC Pro
Photons:
20211105 120s 44x
20211220 120s 18x
20211221 120s 58x
Darks/Flats/Bias
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)

What have I learned from this
Glad I managed to increase the integration time, which is one of the focus points for this new year, but I do want to catch more of the surrounding nebulosity
Somehow, the image still seems very ‘noisy’ for 4 hours integration time, not sure what’s causing this, or how to smoothen it out.

Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭

Follow me @astrowaut

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