The Pleiades.....and more

Astrophotography: share your photos & discuss techniques
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AstroGeek
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Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2003 8:39 pm

The Pleiades.....and more

Unread post by AstroGeek »

Don't we amateur astronomers just LOVE turning back the clocks? Say "YES"
It gets dark an hour earlier AND it effectively moves the winter constellations AHEAD by 15 degrees.

This will bring the Pleaides into our view at a more respectable hour soon. I took this image about three years ago from the backyard dome. Basically, it is an LRGB compilation through a 5" refractor. I had to rotate the CCD camera into 'portrait' mode and image the left and right sections separately, and then blend in Photoshop.

When I was processing this image, I noticed two things that I was not expecting. If you look at the bottom, close-up image, you can see that I captured a faint asteroid as it orbited through one hour of red exposures and one hour of green. I took the luminance and blue exposures on another night, so the asteroid is missing from the view. The other surprise was the appearance of UGC 2838, a galaxy which glows feebly at magnitude 17.3

A couple of secrets shared by the Seven Sisters.

PLEIADES M45.jpg
PLEIADES M45.jpg (8.07 MiB) Viewed 1257 times
PLEIADES M45 gems.jpg
PLEIADES M45 gems.jpg (1.07 MiB) Viewed 1257 times
Steve L
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menardre
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Re: The Pleiades.....and more

Unread post by menardre »

Nice image of the Seven Sisters. You can really see the gas clouds surrounding the stars. It is difficult to process the image to show the gas clouds without blowing out the stars.

Well done!

Yours eyes must be better than mine, I would never have identified the asteroid or the galaxy.

Roger
Roger M.
Celestron CPC1100 EDGE, Stellarvue 130T refractor dual mounted on iOptron CEM120 on permanent pier mounted in Observatory. Imaging camera ZWO ASI2600 OSC, guide camera Lodestar or ZWO ASI290MM.
Bruce D
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Re: The Pleiades.....and more

Unread post by Bruce D »

Always nice to see your work Steve!
Bruce D
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NGC7000
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Re: The Pleiades.....and more

Unread post by NGC7000 »

You must have been pixel peeping to notice what you captured besides the Pleiades, Steve. Beautiful job! As Roger mentioned, your development of the nebulosity is stunning. And don't you just love how Earthbound the auto dictionary is? :lol: )

Tom
Tom H
"Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence." - Louis Pasteur
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AstroGeek
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Re: The Pleiades.....and more

Unread post by AstroGeek »

Thank you, fellas

My next target, which is coming around soon, is M1 The Crab Nebula.

I recently spent an entire night imaging this object from 1am to 5am to capture 70 3-minute exposures of luminance.

Just before going to bed at 5:30, I realized that I never checked the 'save images' box and all was lost.

It was like photographing a wedding with the lens cap on.
Steve L
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