M45 - The Pleiads

21:02 29/9/2008 UTC

Pleiads is one of those targets fairly easy to capture but extremely difficult to make a good image. I had an exceptionally good conditions while capturing this. We went to a dark site with my friend to get most out from the pitch black sky. SQM reading went up to over 21 mag/arcsec2 and that meant I could easily do ten minute subs without narrowband filters, so M45 was my choice. While weather was good I of course hassled somewhere else: I forgot a memory card home, which is essential part of my flat field process. I also screwed up some 60min of subs... And if that wasn't enough I had terrible reflections in final image. But it was nice to be under stars in such conditions!

Camera: Modified Canon EOS 350D | Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 Pro 80mm f7.5 refractor, William Optics 0.8x focal reducer | Mount: Vixen GP-D2, Boxdoerfer PowerFlex MTS-3SLP drive controller | Filters: Astronomik EOS L UV/IR Insert Filter | Guiding: , The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS CCD camera, Orion ShortTube 80mm f5 refractor, Stark-Labs PHD Guiding | Exposure: RGB: 5x600s (50m) ISO800 f6, 17 darks, 2 flats, 0 bias | Software: Stark-Labs Nebulosity 2 | Location: 60°39'N 26°48'E (Huruksela/Kotka, FI) | Background sky brightness (SQM): 21.03mag/arcsec²