Pleiades - M45 in Taurus
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Scope: ST80  f/2.5 Location: Del Mar CA   10/17/03  Camera: ToUcam SC3

Exposure: 15 x 10 sec and 10 x 20 sec  Luminance with BaaderIR Block and Orion Skyglo Filters; 12 x 6 sec RGB - 2 frame mosaic

Processing: All exposures captured and stacked in K3CCDTools. Each exposure set after stacking was aligned in Astroart; some low pass filtering was applied. Aligned masters were saved as FITS. Luminance  masters of different exposures were combined in Photoshop. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Color balance and mosaic joining was done in Photoshop.

This has been one of the most challenging objects for me to image - I have tried at least three times. The challenge lies in trying to capture the fine nebulosity around the min stars without totally bloating out these hot blue stars with defocused UV light. The combination of skyglo and Baader UV/IR cut filter performed the best so far. In this image, North is to the left. Horizontal FOV is about 80'.

 

CLOSE UP OF MEROPE

Scope: C8  f/3.3 Location: Del Mar CA   11/17/03  Camera: ToUcam SC3

Exposure: 12 x 32 sec and 12 x 96 sec  Luminance with Baader IR Block and Orion Skyglo Filters; 12 x 20 sec RGB - 

Processing: All exposures captured and stacked in K3CCDTools. Each exposure set after stacking was aligned in Astroart; some low pass filtering was applied. Aligned masters were saved as FITS. Luminance  masters of different exposures were combined in Photoshop. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Final touches done in Photoshop.

To support the image study of the Pleiades, I wanted to get a smaller FOV image of the star Merope and the surrounding nebula. The above image was the result. Some of the nebulosity is captured, unfortunately, due to the very bright light f the star itself, there are some reflections taking place between filter and focal reducer. Other than that, I was pleased with the image. In this image North is up (differs from the Pleiades image above). Horizontal FOV is about 24'.

 

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