Messier M45 Pleiades being passed through by the waxing Gibbous Moon over 2 hours - 15/1/2011
During the evening of 15th January 2011, the moon slowly moved its way eastward through the Pleiades star cluster (M45). This image is a composite of 3 images taken during the evening.
DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 Stacked 100% of 2 Images ISO 100 1/350 Sec, 0 DARK, 37 BIAS, 0 FLATS, Post-processed by Photoshop CS5 to merge with a third image ISO 100 2 sec with the Moon removed via the Brush Tool.
Lower Moon - 15/01/2011, 9:20:36 PM
Upper Moon - 15/01/2011, 11:07:19 PM
Pleiades - 15/01/2011, 9:21:22 PM (used as frame of reference for the Moons movement)
Telescope - Apogee OrthoStar LOMO 80/480 with Hotech SCA T-Adapter, no filters, Canon 400D DSLR, Ambient xxC (not recorded). Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Star Shoot Auto Guider.
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Geoff
on April 28, 2012I had noticed the difference in colour of the two Moon images but did not investigate its cause at the time I did this stack.
I was more concentrating on how to stack the images to show both the moon movement and show the much fainter Pleiades. I had hoped to get 3 or even 4 images of the Moon in and was using DSS to align the stars and hence an accurate Moon track, but in the end came back to only two. At that point I should have just taken the two Moon images and the third (Pleiades) and done all the stacking in Photoshop, but I stuck with the DSS stack of 2 plus the third and just stacked these two images.
Looking closer at the original raw images, there is some colour and brightness variation in the Moon, but not as much as indicated in the final stacked image, so I think it is something to do with the DSS processing with BIAS frames. When I get some time I might revisit this stack and using PS instead.
Kimbomac
on April 27, 2012Bizarre effect. I love how the two are slightly different colours.