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I was waiting for months until Pleiades (M45) was high in the sky. It was usually just appearing late in the night, and I couldn’t get a shot of it. So, finally it came up with some time, and it was in a good position for photographing. But the structure passes right between a building and my wall of the balcony. Giving me only ~20 minutes of clear view from here.

So I got set up my equipment to be ready to get this window of opportunity for a couple of nights to get some 5 min subs of Pleiades each night to stack them together later. The result is my first nice diffuse nebula:

20130900-pleiadesPleiades (M45)
Focal Length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 800
Filter: Astronomik CLS-CCD
Shutter: 30s / 300s
Tracker: Astrotrac
Stacking: 25 / 17
Total exposure: 5850s
Post processing: Pixinsight
Taken Sep (Several Nights)

Pleiades is huge in the skies, and very hard to miss. But only with photography you can truly see the nebula and the nice blue color it has. Still I think i need longer exposures, since there is much more nebula to see that is not in there. But I got very happy to be able to see this blue color everywhere.

So this last couple of days were of high celestial activities. We had a solar eclipse last Sunday (Nov 3rd, 2013). It was not possible to see it from here, unfortunately. And it was, as always, very cloudy day.

Also we have ISON Comet, the “supposed Great Comet of the century” which is just giving disappointment to people because it is not as bright as it should be. I am trying to check on the weather forecast to see if it will be a clear sky some day around 4AM so I can take a look on the Comet. Never seeing one in my life. I am very curious what can be seeing. Also it is not in the path of my balcony, so… no pictures.