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.
The Pleiades star cluster, or Seven Sisters, aka Messier 45, in Taurus. The brightest part of the reflection nebula around the Pleiades at bottom is the Merope Nebula, IC 349. In this image. I’ve shot long exposures at low ISO speeds to record faint structure at low noise, to allow me to bring out the faint dusty nebulosity all around the region in processing. This is a stack of 10 x 12 minute exposures with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 400 through the TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/4.5 with the Borg. 0.85x field flattener/reducer. Taken from New Mexico, Nov 17, 2014.
The Pleiades star cluster, aka Seven Sisters, or M45, in Taurus. A deep exposure showing the reflection nebulosity which fills the area. This is a stack of 5 x 14 minute exposures with the TMB 92mm apo refractor and Borg 0.85x flattener/reducer at f/4.8 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. Taken from home Oct 9/10, 2013.
