Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Perseus (Per)  ·  Contains:  California nebula  ·  IC 348  ·  IC 353  ·  IC 359  ·  IC 360  ·  Maia nebula  ·  Merope nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  NGC 1499  ·  Part of the constellation Perseus (Per)  ·  The star 37Tau  ·  The star Atik (ζPer)  ·  The star Atlas (27Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17Tau)  ·  The star Merope (23Tau)  ·  The star Taygeta (19Tau)  ·  The star εPer  ·  The star ηTau  ·  The star ξPer  ·  The star οPer
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Pleiades to the California Nebula Mosaic, JDJ
Pleiades to the California Nebula Mosaic
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Pleiades to the California Nebula Mosaic

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Pleiades to the California Nebula Mosaic, JDJ
Pleiades to the California Nebula Mosaic
Powered byPixInsight

Pleiades to the California Nebula Mosaic

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

This image is a two panel mosaic of the region around California Nebula (NGC1499) and Pleiades (M45) taken on the nights of December 30, 2019 and January 1, 2020. I've seen some great images of this region that included both these targets and really loved the contrast in colors between the intense reds of the California Nebula and the blues of the Pleiades.

Imaged with 85mm/F1.4 Rokinon at F/2.8, IDAS LPS D1 Clip Filter, and full spectrum modified Nikon D5300.

Mosaic generated and post-processed in Pixinsight:

(1) For each mosaic panel - Pre-process stacked mosaic segment images: Crop black edges, ABE (keep linear). Pre-processed using PixInsight Batch Pre-Processing (BPP) script. Images calibrated using darks, bias, and flats. For each frame of the mosaic, stacked ~55 subs (120 sec at ISO 200) for a total integration time of ~2 hours per panel.

(2) StarAlignment process with Working mode set to Register/Union – Separate. No frame adaptation.

(3) Apply dnaLinearFit script to match brightness of mosaic segments

(4) Generate mosaic using GradientMergeMosaic process

(5) Additional post-processing on linaer mosaic: MLT for noise reduction, Color Calibration, initial mild stretch of nebulosity using Histogram Transformation Tool using Starnet generated star mask, Masked stretch using default settings, Curves Transformation, ACDNR for noise reduction, HDR transform, Morphological Transformation to shrink stars, and Color Saturation boost.

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