This ended up being a comparison.
Initially I was unhappy with the processing of the RGB data and uploaded the image from the ZWO 2600 OSC, marked Original. Later, I reprocecssed the data from the ZWO 1600 mono camera, using TGV denoise immediately after stretching the image. (which I had tried with the OSC image) so that the two images were processed very similarly. In the end I slightly prefer the image from the Esprit and ZWO 1600.
The two scopes are mounted side by side and are aligned; guiding is through an SX OAG on the Esprit. There is only one night's data for the Takahashi setup because of a schoolboy error with the backfocus from the field flattener.
The image marked Original was taken using the Takahashi FS60CB with 1.04x field flattener (FL 374 mm) and ZWO 2600 mc camera.
200x60 s subs 50 darks, 40 flats and 40 dark flats.
That marked Final was taken using the Esprit 80/400 with Skywatcher field flattener and ZWO 1600 mm camera and ZWO RGB filters
Red: 50 x 30 s; 66x60 s, Green: 40x30s; 70x60s, Blue: 40x30s; 61x60s
50 darks
40 flats, 40 dark flats for each channel
M 45 is an open cluster that contains over a thousand stars, loosely bound by gravity. Visually, it is dominated by a small number of the brightest stars, which give it its names, the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters [1].
The bright blue reflection nebula results from reflection of the the starlight from clouds of interstellar dust through which the stars are currently moving [2].
[1] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-45-the-pleiades.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades
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