Mists of Pleiades

The bright stars of Pleiades shine through the mist like dust that drifts within the intersellar emptiness, their pale blue light revealing the seemingly gentle currents driven by the light of the stars themselves.

Situated in the constellation of Taurus, Messier 45 lies at a distance of 444 light years and is easily seen by the naked eye. I've taken pictures of one of my favourite deep sky objects before, however this is my first with the wider field of the Redcat 51 (previously it was through my Skywatcher Esprit 120ED).

Whilst the blue reflection nebula around the brightest of Pleiades stars can be imaged relatively easily, trying to capture the dust in the surrounding area takes a bit more integration. Unfortunately, I have found pushing the images taken through my Redcat reveals some of its optical weaknesses - an imperfect field and radial colour gradients. Whilst not impossible to compensate for these in post-processing, it does impact the quality of the result somewhat.

This is the first deep sky image I've taken for almost a year. Gee, it was great to get out there again...

| 2023-11-17 | Regan's Ford, Western Australia | ASI2600MC | William Optics Redcat 51 | f/4.9 | UV/IR cut-filter | Gain 100 | 60x480s | 1 x panel | Skywatcher EQ5 mount | AsiAir Plus |