Pleiades, a deep dive

[crimbfighter]

A deep dive into Pleiades! Imaged last night from my Bortle 5/6 back yard, this is a two panel mosaic (panorama) of the Pleiades star cluster, capturing much more detail in the fine strands of gas surrounding the stars. The last time I imaged this was last winter, in a much wider field of view.

-Celestron AVX mount
-Astro-Tech AT130EDT 130mm f/7 telescope with a 0.8x reducer, making it a 728mm focal length, f/5.6 scope
-ZWO ASI2600MC Pro cooled astronomy camera
-ZWO EAF focuser
-Optolong L-Pro light pollution filter
-Pegasus Astro Mini Powerbox
-Orion 60mm guide scope
-Orion starshoot autoguide camera
-Controlled with an MeLE Quieter 3Q mini PC running Windows

Software
-Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition
-PixInsight and Photoshop for image processing
-PHD2 guiding software

-180 second subexposures for a total of 2hrs 30min exposure time, each panel, 5hrs total
-Calibrated with 15 each flats, darks, and dark flats

And the imaging setup for reference

 

[Jeff15]

Another wonderful shot....

 

[jeffashman]

Very nice shot! Looks like a dancing skeleton.

 

[slat]

Great shot.

 

[crimbfighter]

Another wonderful shot....

Thanks!

Very nice shot! Looks like a dancing skeleton.

Haha, now I see it! Fitting being October..

Great shot.

Thanks!

 

[thecoastallens]

That is a pretty amazing shot.

 

[terri]

This is gorgeous!

What wonderful work!

 

[zombiesniper]

Excellent i image.

I hope to start shooting Pleiades soon. I bought new gear though so I have a week of rain and clouds as my reward. lol

 

[wobe]

Keep 'em coming! Always a treat to see.

 

[DenisS]

absolutely marvellous!

 

[crimbfighter]

Excellent i image.

I hope to start shooting Pleiades soon. I bought new gear though so I have a week of rain and clouds as my reward. lol

I bought a new mount, and immediately brought in the clouds... what new gear did you get?

 

[zombiesniper]

I got the Ioptron SkyGuider Pro and a guide scope with a Player One guide camera.
First use was just to get a better shot of the Orion nebula and to learn how it all works. lol

Which mount did you get? I thought your Celestron was a great mount.

My latest attempt at the Orion nebula. Also starting to get the Horse head and Flame nebula's in the bottom left.

orion by Trevor Baldwin, on Flickr

 

[Grandpa Ron]

You definitely get an "Atta boy" for that shot. Having dabbled in antinomy many times, I tip my hat to your patience and perseverance. Great Shot.

 

[crimbfighter]

I got the Ioptron SkyGuider Pro and a guide scope with a Player One guide camera.
First use was just to get a better shot of the Orion nebula and to learn how it all works. lol

Which mount did you get? I thought your Celestron was a great mount.

Awesome! I have the skyguider pro as well. That is my travel mount. I have never guided it, though.

I bought an iOptron HAE43. I have been watching the strain wave gear mounts for a year or so, and the portability, lack of backlash, and high payload capacities sold me. The AVX was the best I could afford at the time, but is very much a budget mount, and it took a lot of work to get it running well enough to image reliably. I had to tune the mount, constantly adjust backlash, and fight with software compatibility issues. The new mount solves all my gripes and has seamlessly integrated into my software. My very first time using the mount, everything ran seamlessly.

 

[zombiesniper]

Crap, that is quite the mount. 43lbs without a counter weight is insane.