M45 – A Darker View

Pleiades in Color

OK, I have color. Getting there, but not quite happy with the result. This is my first attempt at LLRGB layering to assemble the color and luminance data.

Too much noise and structural information is coming through with the color data. I had to use a lot of noise reduction in final processing.

Some odd rectangular structure around bright stars that might be coming from the microlenses of the CMOS sensor. This shows in the color data, but not so much the luminance.

Still have some learning to do…

Pleiades

As I get back into astrophotography I am starting to conquer the little issues that make huge differences in the results.

I did get a nice session in last week, with several targets imaged. I am still struggling with processing LRGB color data and have some learning ahead of me. In the meantime the monochrome luminance images look pretty good.

I had hoped to get some more telescope time in tonight, the weather decided otherwise. May as well process photos while I listen to rain on the roof.

The Pleiades anyone?

Comet C/2014Q2 Lovejoy and the Pleiades

Sunday night I shot a wide-field image of the comet as it passed near the Pleiades star cluster. I am somewhat disappointed by the image. The skies over Waikoloa are just not conducive to wide-field imaging. And with a couple scheduled mountain days I did not have the option to take the gear up to where conditions are better. Not and get any sleep. Still, it is not a total disaster…

C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy & M45 — Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy passing by the Pleiades star cluster

Postcard from the Universe – Pleiades

The Pleiades were not my primary target for the night, but that was setting and I was in no hurry to shut the gear down when there was a lot of dark remaining in the night. I glanced around the sky looking for a target appropriate for the field of view of the gear and just chanced to look at the star cluster.

Perfect…

The Moon and Pleiades

Tonight a bright half Moon will be just under 4° from the Pleiades star cluster. The Moon will be 43% illuminated, bright, but the cluster is bright enough to be seen even against a bright Moon. As the Pleiades move to the west over coming months there will be a few more lunar conjunctions, with increasingly smaller crescents.

Postcard from the Universe – Pleiades

Yes, I have shot the Pleiades many times before. Still, a nice test of the new camera. I was limited to short exposures, 2 minutes in this case, as I was not setup for guiding. I took more frames instead, over thirty exposures of two minutes each for an hour total. After throwing a few out I still had enough to beat down the noise. I expect that with guiding and longer exposures the result would be better, but this wasn’t too bad…