THE PLEIADES (M45)




This image represents a reprocess of an image that I originally took during my trip to Les Granges, France in 2008. The original data and image capture details can be seen HERE. I knew that the original data must be good as the image was captured under very dark skies however, my process of it resulted in bloated stars, poor star colour & excessive noise. I had several attempts to improve the image and after posting on one of the astronomy forums for advice Mr. Noel Carboni kindly reprocessed the image using his considerable processing skills. I was amazed with the transformation. Star size is a lot smaller, colours are better and noise has almost disappeared. Mr. Carboni also resampled the image size and added a few diffraction spikes which although, as a rule I do not agree with I have to say that in this instance have really added to the effect of the image. My thanks to Mr. Carboni for taking the time to show me what you can achieve with good image data if you know how to process it.