Pleiades
M45 / Seven Sisters / Kiʹmah
Kiʹmah is possibly a reference to Pleiades in Amos 5:8:
The One who made the Kiʹmah constellation and the Keʹsil constellation,
The One who turns deep shadow into morning,
The One who makes day as dark as night,
The One who summons the waters of the sea
To pour them out on the surface of the earth
—Jehovah is his name."
October 2022 update
This is brand new data shot at our new location with our current rig.
Technical details
| Telescope | Skywatcher Esprit 100ED (f/5.5) |
| Filter | Astrodon LRGB Gen2 E-Series |
| Field flattener | Skywatcher Esprit (1x) |
| Camera | QHYCCD 268m, -15°C, Mode 1, Gain 56, Offset 30 |
| Resolution | 6085x3976 (cropped, 2x drizzled integration) |
| Light frames | R: 16 (60s), 16 (180s), 64m total |
| G: 16 (60s), 16 (180s), 64m total | |
| B: 16 (60s), 16 (180s), 64m total | |
| 3h12m total | |
| Flat frames | 16 each (3s, per channel brightess) |
| Darkflat frames | 32 |
| Dark frames | 8 |
| Bias frames | - |
| Location | Kalkalpen Nationalpark, Austria |
| Local time | 2022-10-18 02:01 - 03:19 (48 frames, 60s) |
| 2022-10-27 23:56 - 02:52 (48 frames, 180s) | |
| Image center | 3h46m32s +24°07'17" |
| Field of view | 2°16’ x 1°36’ (rotation -73°) |
July 2022 update
Reprocessed the January, 2021 data and also used some longer exposures that were previously left out. Improved noise reduction and color correction. Compare with the previous version!
Moonless night, good weather conditions (-4°C, relative humidity 97%, wind ~2km/h), percect tracking; shot 100 frames… and 60 were out of focus (after the meridian flip) :( Despite the errors Pleiades is still breathtaking.
| Telescope | Skywatcher 200PDS (200/1000 Newton) |
| Filter | IDAS D2 (multi-bandpass light pollution filter) |
| Coma corrector | Skywatcher f/5 (0.9x) |
| Camera | Canon 7D Mark II |
| Resolution | 2742 x 1756 (cropped & scaled 50%) |
| Light frames | 12/12, 360s @ ISO 400, 1h12m in total |
| 40/100, 90s @ ISO 800, 1h in total | |
| 2h12m total | |
| Dark frames | 3 + 20 (only for BPM) |
| Bias frames | 20 + 20 |
| Flat frames | 18 + 18 |
| Location | Bolton, UK |
| Local time | 2021-01-01 23:14 - 01:03 |
| 2021-01-06 23:24 - 00:33 | |
| Field of view | 1°25 x 54’ (rotation 20.6°) |
| Image center | 3h46m58s +24°06'44" |
January 2021 version
| Telescope | Skywatcher 200PDS (200/1000 Newton) |
| Filter | IDAS D2 (multi-bandpass light pollution filter) |
| Coma corrector | Skywatcher f/5 (0.9x) |
| Camera | Canon 7D Mark II |
| Resolution | 2663 x 1740 (cropped & scaled) |
| Light frames | 40/100, 90s @ ISO 800, 1h in total |
| Dark frames | 20 |
| Bias frames | 20 |
| Flat frames | 18 |
| Location | Bolton, UK |
| Local time | 2021-01-06 23:24 - 00:33 |
It appears that on frame #34 we have also captured a cosmic ray. The trail’s width is a single subpixel (4.06μm, upper bound) the length is about 316μm (57x53 subpixels).
