I went back to M45 yesterday night after plate solving in APT worked like a dream but after 15 subs the clouds rolled in. I will add this data in this evening and see if it will improve.
Good effort you have the right idea..more data more data...plus do yourself a favour..buy StarTools.. just running your image thru the noise reduction in StarTools will improve the image so much your jaw will drop..if you have not noticed I have been telling about how much benefit my image of the Spider has enjoyed by using only the best date...so get heaps and select only to best is my second tip...good luck with your next run.
Alex
Another try on the same target.
A total of 2 hours and 27 minutes compiled of 120 seconds and 180 seconds subs, flats and darks.
It was the first time that I tried the automatic meridian flip in APT which worked. However the guiding didn't restart after re-centering but i think that's because I am using on-mount guiding.
Much better than the first time less noise and more detail coming through, a few more times of acquisition and you'll have an awesome image.
Try diminishing the gradients there are a few youtube clips that can help with this.
Starting to get some nice detail, I think you could benefit with a clip-in filter for your camera. The problem with stacking is it tends to only bring out the detail that is already present and I think with a filter you could get rid of a lot of that background skyglow and increase your sub length to at least 6 minutes.
I posted it on FB page and someone else had a go at it and made it better.
I asked how but got not a response I can use. :-)
His processing made it so much better. Same data.
