Pleaides - Yet another one :)

Hi Michael,

OK, you asked for it

I think that the DPP or curves medium has been pushed too far. Dave and I compared our M45 shots some months ago and I can make mine look like that, but IMHO if background areas appear lit then you need to back off a bit.

Is tracking just a tad off?

To be honest at this point, pretty much everyones opinions are subjective.

Good shot!

Later,

Jed.

Jed,

I appreciate the feedback.

Tracking was a bit off alright. I was turning on the light at the start of the evening in the observatory and turned around to walk back out again. Before I knew it, I had walloped my ribs straight into the counterweight shaft! I thought this mount was only supposed to hurt my wallet? As I result, I think I may have slightly shifted the mount in azimuth. I think it's still ok for polar height though as I checked for this later in the evening. Due to cloud rolling in, I didn't get to check it in azimuth.

Interesting your comments re background illumination. Some people feel it should have a slight level of illumination whilst others think it should be jet black. Guess I have to decide for myself.

Thanks again,

Righteo then, tried M45 again last night. I've kept on the same target for consistency so that I can improve my imaging and processing skills consistently, or at least that's the idea anyway.

This image is made up of 3 x 10mins and 12 x 5mins exposures at ISO 400. Processed it in mono as it's much easier to bring out the detail without worrying about colour balance at the same time.



Tried to keep the background dark, stars round and sharp but not too sharp, and bring out the detail in the nebula. Thanks to Dave Grennan for talking me through DDP and other functions in Imagesplus. Much appreciated.

Regards,

Michael,

For some reason I cannot get the original image nor the one on flickr to display. However, I can see fine the monochrome version which seems to be a recent addition.

Please note that there are some very small dark (black) holes above many of the stars. This is an indication that perhaps deconvolution was pushed a bit too much without having the necessary S/N in the original message to support the amount of decon you did eventually pursue.

The amount of nebulosity you captured is really good and I would certainly not turn my back on it. Your stars are also very good indicating good polar alignment, good guiding and good focusing.

hi michael,
well done on the image great work

ps who is rod gendler
i kneel before you rod