Cocoon Nebula area with M39 to the right and NGC 7209 to the left; with dark nebula B168 between Cocoon and M39. Taken Sept. 13, 2007 for stack of 4 x 4 minute exposures with 135mm L-series lens at f/2.8 and Canon 20Da camera at ISO 800.
Messier 44, the Beehive or Praesepe star cluster in Cancer, through the 105mm Astro-Physics Traveler apo refractor with the Hotech field flattener for f/5.8 and in a stack of 11 x 4-minute exposures at ISO 800 with the Canon 6D MkII camera. Taken on a slightly hazy night on March 25, 2019, thus the natural star glows – the cluster is not surrounded by nebulosity! However, the sky is clear enough that some of the very faint IC, UGC, and PGC galaxies in the field show up. Most are 15th to 17th magnitude. I’ve punched up the star colours with a star mask. Stars tightened with StarShrink filter. Diffraction spikes added in post with Astronomy Tools actions.
The Pleiades in Taurus, and the California Nebula, NGC 1499, in Perseus. The small blue reflection nebula at centre right is IC 348. This is a stack of 5 x 6 minute exposures with the 135mm Canon L-Series lens at f/2.8 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. From home on a clear winter's night. Original exposures were technically overexposed but processed up well with huge increases in contrast introduced at every stage, from RAW to layered Photoshop, to final flattened TIFF. Several masks employed to equallize (flatten) the brightness gradients across the image from radial lens vignetting, linear edge camera lens box shadowing, and linear sky gradients. But having originals that were overexposed provided lots of signal, despite having only 5 exposures median combined, allowing the very faint nebulas to be brought out without significant noise. Having a cold (-5°C) camera helped too.
