M45 (Pleiades) in HOORGB, 98 hours taken over the course of 19 nights.
I’ve wanted to take this picture for a couple of years, but whenever I could get to my dark sky site, it was cloudy. The stars finally aligned (literally) and I was able to get a good amount of RGB data from my dark sky site this winter.
During my research for taking this photo, I noticed that some images had small amount of faint Hydrogen Alpha immediately around M45, so I figured I’d pile on some HA data for my wide field image and see if any more hydrogen would present itself…I was pleasantly surprised to find some wispy streams of hydrogen that I’d never seen before, right outside of the star cluster.
The RGB data was taken from my dark sky site in Bone Cave, TN. The narrowband data was taken from my backyard in Nashville, TN.
Imaging details:
Imaging Telescope: OPT Telescopes TPO UltraWide 180 f/4.5
Imaging Camera: ZWO Astronomy Cameras ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher USA Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Guiding Telescope: ZWO 30mm Mini Guider Scope
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini
Filters:
Baader Planetarium Baader Fringe Killer 2″
Optolong Astronomy Filter Optolong L-eXtreme 2″
Accessories: ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF
Software: Adobe Photoshop, Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP), Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
Dates:
Nov. 18, 2022, Nov. 19, 2022, Nov. 20, 2022, Nov. 21, 2022, Nov. 22, 2022, Nov. 23, 2022, Nov. 28, 2022, Nov. 30, 2022, Dec. 12, 2022, Dec. 15, 2022, Dec. 16, 2022, Dec. 17, 2022, Dec. 18, 2022, Dec. 19, 2022, Dec. 20, 2022, Dec. 23, 2022, Dec. 24, 2022, Dec. 25, 2022, Dec. 27, 2022, Jan. 1, 2023
Frames:
Baader Fringe Killer 2″: 538×240″ (35h 52′) (gain: 100.00) -10°C
Optolong L-eXtreme 2″: 467×480″ (62h 16′) (gain: 100.00) -10°C
Total Integration: 98h 8′