Pleiades from light polluted Newcastle

[tornado33]

Hi all
Even though the moon was not far past full, as it rose more to the north, I worked out Id get a moon free window, so imaged the Pleiades, starting as soon as it was dark enough.
Got 9x5 mins in before the sky got too bright with the rising moon. It was a warm night.

modded 350D, LPS filter, Canon 300mm f2.8 Flourite lens from Bert. Had a gradient to remove, and light pollution.

In the old film days I got excited upon picking up any trace of nebulosity from a dark country site. Now I can get plenty from light polluted Newcastle. Digital imaging is great.

Theres traces of red in the lower parts of the nebulosity near Merope
Scott

[Octane]

Hi Scott,

Lovely image. Always enjoy seeing your images.

I really like the composition in this one.

Just a slight criticism, I think the logarithmic stretching has been pushed a little far as there are some very bright blue halos around the stars. It's almost as if the centre of the star has been pushed towards white, resulting in the natural (logarithmically stretched) star colour looking like a halo.

That lens is a scorcher.

Regards,
Humayun

[tornado33]

Thanks. Would be good to see what it would be like at a darker site, would not need as much stretching.
Scott

[theodog]

Nice one Scott.
More data tonight might intensify the image?

[leon]

Hey Scott there is nothing wrong with that effort, I like it, well done.

Leon

[gregbradley]

You got a lot there. Nice capture.

Greg.

[Quark]

Hi Scott,

Nice image, it really is amazing what DSLR's have done for astrophotography.

Regards
Trevor

[prokyon]

Hi Scott,

you did a good job. The light pollution is a great handicap. You mastered it!

werner

[multiweb]

Nice indeed :thumbsup: Not an easy target. Can't believe you got that much data with LP. Top work.

[tornado33]

Thanks all
It would be good to get say 2 hours of data under a really dark sky. Maybe one day.... :)

[2020BC]

A nice result from an LP location. I quite like this image. It's real-looking, not over contrasted and noise is not evident. With that field of view you also get an impression of the extent of the thing. Nice.:thumbsup:

[alan meehan]

nice one scott good to see you getting in some shots and its not just me thats seems to be getting more light pollution
cheers Al

[spearo]

Nice one, lots of nebulosity captured.
don't despair about the light pollution.

I just had a 2 minute play with your image and i think you should try this:


duplicate your image in PS
filter/blur/gaussian blur the copy (max blur)
Personally i usually give that blur a slight filter/noise add noise at 1.3 pixels (this is optional.

The click on the original image,
select Image from menu/apply image

ensure that the top drop down box has the copy (blurred) selected in the drop down

then select "subtract" from the blending menu,

adjust the offset (try offset 13 on this image)

light pollution noise should be gone, leaving a nice inky sky and a stand out Pleiades.

you got it there and it looks very good
cheers
frank

[strongmanmike]

Firstly Scott, this is an amazing image considering it was taken from light polutted Newcastle, excellent!

Frank an excellent technique, I tried it, works well with a bit of fiddling with the settings :thumbsup:

Mike

[spearo]

no problem,
there's better ways i'm sure but this is a nice and easy one, of course results will be even nicer working with the original file.
cheers
frank