Pleiades Star Cluster - M45

This is a 4 hour exposure of the Pleiades Star Cluster. This open star cluster is located 444 light years away, and contains about 1000 stars. This makes it the closest star cluster to earth, and the bright stars make it super easy to see anywhere. This nebula is caused by the bright stars illuminating the intergalactic dust around it. 
Picture
Final Cropped Version
Picture
Pleiades Star Cluster Labelled
Details of How the shot was Taken
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Gear:
  • Olympus OMD EM-5 Micro 4/3 camera 
  • Skywatcher Star Adventurer (Unguided)
  • Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 lens
  • Home made dew heater
    • Made with nichrome wire wrapped in duct tape, which is powdered by a lipo battery 
​Acquisition & Environment:
  • 225x1 minute exposures (3.75 hours)
  • 1600 iso @ 150mm (300 equivalent) F3.2
  • 80 Flat Frames
  • 43 Dark Frames
  • 55 Bias Frames
  • Taken: September 12, 2018
Processing:
  • Images processed in DeepSkyStacker
    • 2x Drizzle Stack
    • Brought Saturation to 17 and match all rgb levels
  • Photoshop Adjustments:
    • Cropped to remove stacking errors and center the cluster in the frame
    • Adjust Levels to bring Histogram to the front and bring out more nebulosity
    • Used RC-Astro's Gradient xterminator to remove the gradient the flats couldn't fix
    • Adjust Colour balance to adjust background colour to be neutral
    • Used Deep Sky Colours HLVG tool to remove any unnecessary greens in the photo
    • Used Astronomy tools to bring out local contrast and make stars smaller
      • Enhance DSO and Reduce Stars tool was used
    • Increased the Saturation 
    • Exported into jpeg
Picture
The Raw Image From the Camera