2021.11.25 – Pleiades
Gear
- Telescope – Meade 70mm Series 6000 Refractor
- Main Camera – ZWO ASI294MC Pro
- Mount – HEQ5
- Guide Scope – ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope
- Guide Camera – ZWO ASI290MM
- Controller – ZWO ASIAir Pro
Acquisition
- 40 Light Images at 120 gain, 300s exposure
- 5 Dark Images
- 5 Bias Images
- 10 Flat Images
M45. Pleiades. Also known as The Seven Sisters. It is an open star cluster at about 444 light years way. It’s closer than most targets I’ve imaged and visible with the naked eye. I can spot on extra dark nights in the sky.
I have attempted imaging Pleiades before. I think the biggest issue I had was properly post-processing. I’ve been doing nebulas mostly and star clusters should be pretty straight forward. With M45 there is the luminous area which I have seen some people do a tremendous job exposing. Above is my first image where I felt I did decent job exposing as well. I’ll mess around a bit more. I did 300s exposure but maybe the next attempt I go for a shorter exposure time with a much higher light image count. Overall, a fair first success of imaging.
Friendship, some say, is a single soul residing in two bodies, but why limit it to two? What if friendship is more like a great, endless web, where each connection strengthens the whole? Maybe we are not separate beings at all, but parts of one vast consciousness, reaching out through the illusion of individuality to recognize itself in another.