Pleiades, Exmoor, 2018

M45

The light of the famous star cluster Pleiades (M45), the Seven Ancient Greek Sisters, travelled 400 light years and highlighted unrelated cosmic dust that spans over 20 light years to reach my camera sensor under the pristine dark skies of Exmoor.

Tech Card

Date / Location

10th November 2018, Exmoor, GMT+0, United Kingdom, TEMP: 8C, HUM: 96%, Bortle Class 3 ~SGM: 21.75 mag./arc sec2

Equipment

Camera: Nikon D810A

Imaging Telescope: Takahashi FS-60CB

Correcting Lens: Takahashi Reducer 0.72x (composite focal length at 264mm and focal ratio at f/4.9)

Mount: iOptron CEM25EC

Image Quality

14 bit RAW (NEF)

Exposure time per image / number of composities and sensitivity

ISO 1600, 1 x 180" subs

ISO 3200, 20 x 180" subs

Total Integration Time

1hr 3mins

Calibration Frames

23 Darks, 23 Bias, 25 Flats

Software

PixInsight 1.8 Core

Photoshop