AndrewSingleton
The Seven Sisters
Also known as the Pleiades and Messier 45, are an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. It is among the star clusters nearest to Earth, it is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from the formation of the cluster, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing.[Wikipedia]
75x29s (36 mins) with flats and bias. Dithered. Taken on the 22nd November 2020.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100 with a GuDoQi Wireless Wifi SD Card.
ISO: 800. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector.
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box and a white t-shirt.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - NINA connecting to EQMOD, PHD Guiding 2, and Plate Solve 2. EZ Share to automatically push pictures to the laptop for image centralization. Also used PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Star Tools and Topaz Denoise AI.
Moon: About 40% waxing crescent although it had set by the time I got going.
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 7/8 in Davyhulme, Manchester.
Weather/Seeing:- Clear nights are extremely rare these days, the last real night was in September. These days I must settle for the possibility of a break in the clouds. There was a clear spell at the start of this night, most of which was me faffing around setting up and then having to wait for my laptop to do an update. Just as I started polar alignment the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. I hurriedly covered all the electrics, switched off, threw my jacket over the scope, came inside and watched The Martian. Soon after it finished I went back out and it started to clear. After an hour and a bit of shooting; the clouds rolled in again, started to spit and I hurriedly started to pack up. It was a false alarm with it soon clearing again but I was tired and had already begun winding down. An observatory would really help but I’m not sure I’ll ever get to that point.
Other Notes:- I had to call this the Seven Sisters. My Dad got me into astronomy and one of the lasting memories of growing up was him regularly pointing ‘The Seven Sisters’.
With constant clouds all I can do to keep connected to this hobby is watch YouTube videos and read up on the theory. I watched a fantastic lecture by Robin Glover on exposure times and have been persuaded to cut down my sub lengths significantly. I’m sure the read noise in the D3100 is very large so decided on subs just under half a minute long. This lecture and a recent video from Trevor Jones (the AstroBackyard guy) also persuaded me to ditch the light pollution filter and I’m glad I did, I don’t think adding a filter to this picture would have made any difference.
Perhaps this needs more time to eek out some details and reduce the noise but I’m actually quite happy with this even if it is only just over half an hour of exposures.
The Seven Sisters
Also known as the Pleiades and Messier 45, are an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. It is among the star clusters nearest to Earth, it is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from the formation of the cluster, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing.[Wikipedia]
75x29s (36 mins) with flats and bias. Dithered. Taken on the 22nd November 2020.
Telescope: - Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian.
Camera: - Nikon D3100 with a GuDoQi Wireless Wifi SD Card.
ISO: 800. Automated white balance
Filters: - Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector.
Flats taken with a Huion L4S Light Box and a white t-shirt.
Wireless Remote: PIXEL TW-283 DC2 2.4G.
Mount: - Skywatcher EQ6R.
Guiding: Skywatcher EvoGuide 50ED & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini.
Polar Aligned with SharpCap Pro.
Control Software: - NINA connecting to EQMOD, PHD Guiding 2, and Plate Solve 2. EZ Share to automatically push pictures to the laptop for image centralization. Also used PHD Dither Timer.
Processing Software: Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, edited in Star Tools and Topaz Denoise AI.
Moon: About 40% waxing crescent although it had set by the time I got going.
Light Pollution and Location: - Bortle 7/8 in Davyhulme, Manchester.
Weather/Seeing:- Clear nights are extremely rare these days, the last real night was in September. These days I must settle for the possibility of a break in the clouds. There was a clear spell at the start of this night, most of which was me faffing around setting up and then having to wait for my laptop to do an update. Just as I started polar alignment the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. I hurriedly covered all the electrics, switched off, threw my jacket over the scope, came inside and watched The Martian. Soon after it finished I went back out and it started to clear. After an hour and a bit of shooting; the clouds rolled in again, started to spit and I hurriedly started to pack up. It was a false alarm with it soon clearing again but I was tired and had already begun winding down. An observatory would really help but I’m not sure I’ll ever get to that point.
Other Notes:- I had to call this the Seven Sisters. My Dad got me into astronomy and one of the lasting memories of growing up was him regularly pointing ‘The Seven Sisters’.
With constant clouds all I can do to keep connected to this hobby is watch YouTube videos and read up on the theory. I watched a fantastic lecture by Robin Glover on exposure times and have been persuaded to cut down my sub lengths significantly. I’m sure the read noise in the D3100 is very large so decided on subs just under half a minute long. This lecture and a recent video from Trevor Jones (the AstroBackyard guy) also persuaded me to ditch the light pollution filter and I’m glad I did, I don’t think adding a filter to this picture would have made any difference.
Perhaps this needs more time to eek out some details and reduce the noise but I’m actually quite happy with this even if it is only just over half an hour of exposures.