Pleiades and The California Nebula

This wide field image of the Pleiades Cluster and the California Nebula and was the first thing I imaged last week but it was hardest to process as it had a nebula.  Pleiades or Seven Sisters (M45), is an open star cluster located in the constellation of Taurus.  The California Nebula (NGC 1499) is an emission nebula relatively close by in the constellation Perseus. It has some resemblance to the outline of California and hence its name.

The moon was not up yet which is why I went ahead and took with this image.  I did use the Astronomik CLS filter even though the objects were almost directly overhead as it was still pretty early in the evening and I wanted to avoid as much pollution as possible.  It was a good thing as my neighbor has three floodlights which rivals Las Vegas.  Fortunately they are on motion sensors but they did come on from time to time.

The center of this image is dark from top to bottom.  That dark area is real, this region of space has a lot of dust and gas causing the darkness.  If I really overexpose the image, it becomes somewhat visible.

This was my second piggyback wide field image with my Canon EF 50mm stm lens and so far I am very happy with it.

Pleiades and the California Nebula
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 1-15-17, 08:15 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Canon 50mm EF Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 50mm
f/3.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR, Astronomik CLS (48mm)
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 44 x 120 sec (1 hr 24 min)
ISO: 1600
Temp: -3.8 C (25 F)
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Astrophotography Tools, StarTools