M45 Pleiades Cluster

[celeron787]

Another session plagued with technical issues, unable to get proper polar alignment, persistent slight star trailing even at 25secs exposure, frames slowly getting overexposed as M45 sets into heavier light pollution, difficult gradient reduction in post-processing.
Final image is quite acceptable even though I'm not too satisfied with it, managed to get some nebulosity out, slight star trailing when zoomed in and decent star colors despite overexposed frames.

The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters or M45, is an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus and is visible to the naked eye in Singapore.
Fun fact - Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster which inspired the old Subaru logo.

Annotated: http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/4934154

Sony A6000
William Optics RedCat 51 Petzval APO
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
Star Adventurer Tripod

Singapore, Bortle 8
ISO800
Light Frames - 172 x 25secs (manually dithered in RA and DEC)
Dark Frames - 30 x 25secs
Flat Frames - 35
Bias Frames - 50

Deep Sky Stacker
StarTools - 50% bin, Autodev, Crop, Wipe, Super Structure, Color, Super Structure, Denoise

[hhzhang]

Nice shot! With M45 getting lower and lower in altitude in post-dusk hours day by day, we may have to shoot it from somewhere like Kranji/LCK for its better LP conditions facing west

[hhzhang]

Nice shot! With M45 getting lower and lower in altitude in post-dusk hours day by day, we may have to shoot it from somewhere like Kranji/LCK for its better LP conditions facing west

[celeron787]

Nice shot! With M45 getting lower and lower in altitude in post-dust hours day by day, we may have to shoot it from somewhere like Kranji/LCK for its better LP conditions facing west

Thanks! I'll probably attempt it again late this year as it rises. In the meantime, I'm looking into getting a guidescope for phd2 drift alignment and guiding. Hope it's goes well!

[hhzhang]

Nice shot! With M45 getting lower and lower in altitude in post-dust hours day by day, we may have to shoot it from somewhere like Kranji/LCK for its better LP conditions facing west

Thanks! I'll probably attempt it again late this year as it rises. In the meantime, I'm looking into getting a guidescope for phd2 drift alignment and guiding. Hope it's goes well!

Have you got your guiding gear?

Autoguiding is definitely worth it even for a single axis motor mount like the Star Adventure.

[celeron787]

Have you got your guiding gear?

Autoguiding is definitely worth it even for a single axis motor mount like the Star Adventure.

Hey, no unfortunately. My guidescope is otw but the guide cam is still OOS. Quite excited to try out autoguiding, hopefully better polar alignment and more subs to keep!