Tag: Astrophotography

Chasing the Dust of M45 — A Work-In-Progress Peek

Gareth HardingLeave a comment

Tonight I’ve been diving back into the Pleiades (M45), one of those targets that never really loses its charm. Most people recognise the bright blue reflection nebulosity at the centre of the cluster, but the real magic lies in the vast cloud of faint dust that surrounds it. This is where the challenge — and the reward — truly kicks in.

I’m currently sitting at just under five hours of exposure time across luminance, RGB and a touch of Ha. That’s already enough to start revealing the delicate, smoke-like structures stretching far beyond the bright stars. Every extra frame deepens the view, smoothing the gradients and teasing out subtler and subtler texture.

Of course, no astro session is complete without something going slightly off-script. Somewhere in the luminance stack a rogue frame slipped through with a plane streaking straight across it. So this early working version has a little surprise trail running through the field — thankfully it won’t survive into the final image once I finish the full stack. Just another reminder that astrophotography is half art, half chaos!

Processing this one has been all about balance. Reflection nebulae like M45 are soft, gentle structures, and it’s very easy to overprocess the dust and make it look crunchy or artificial. So I’ve taken a careful approach: a bit of background cleanup, controlled noise reduction, star removal and reintegration, and some very restrained contrast shaping. Little steps, but each one helps the dust breathe without overpowering the natural look of the scene.

There’s still more data to gather — especially luminance — and I’m planning to deepen the capture when the next clear night arrives. Once I push the integration further, the final image should show even richer dust detail with smoother transitions and cleaner colours.

For now, this is just a behind-the-scenes look at how M45 is taking shape. Even at this stage I’m really happy with how the dust is emerging, and I’m excited to keep building on it.

More updates soon… and hopefully fewer planes next time! ✨🔭

🌌 New Astrophotography Project: Going Deep on M45 (The Pleiades)

Gareth HardingLeave a comment
A deep astrophotography capture of M45, the Pleiades star cluster, showing bright blue reflection nebulosity, soft interstellar dust clouds, and the dense star field surrounding the Seven Sisters. The image highlights fine dust filaments and subtle colour variations across the cluster.

Tonight marks the start of a brand-new long-term project: a deep, high-resolution exploration of M45 — The Pleiades.
It’s one of the most iconic objects in the night sky, but beneath the bright blue stars is an incredible world of hidden dust, faint reflection nebulosity, and intricate filaments that only reveal themselves with serious integration time.

My plan is to push this target much deeper than my usual widefield attempts. I want to pull out the delicate, smoky dust lanes surrounding the cluster — the parts that often get lost or clipped in shorter exposures. With enough hours, the Pleiades transforms from a star cluster into a drifting cloud of ancient interstellar material, carved and illuminated by starlight.

The goal for this project is:

✨ Project Goals

  • Capture fine dust detail in the Merope and Maia regions
  • Reveal the faint outer reflection nebulosity that makes M45 so dramatic
  • Produce a clean, natural-colour broadband image with strong contrast
  • Build a dataset with enough depth to withstand high-resolution processing
  • Create a final piece worthy of printing and adding to my Eternal Skies portfolio

This will be a multi-night capture, spread over as many clear opportunities as the weather allows (so… we’ll see what the UK has planned). I’ll be sharing updates as the data builds and the image takes shape.

It’s always exciting starting something new — especially a target as beautifully complex as the Pleiades. Time to chase the dust.

Clear skies ✨

Veil Nebula (4-Panel Mosaic Progress)

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Blog Update — Veil Nebula (4-Panel Mosaic Progress)

Over the last few weeks I’ve returned to the Veil Nebula with a proper long-term plan: build out a full 4-panel mosaic with enough integration time to finally pull out the faintest strands of oxygen and sulphur drifting across this ancient supernova remnant.

This new version is my first full process pass using the updated data — now sitting at around 16 hours total exposure spread evenly across the mosaic. Even at this stage, the difference is huge. The extra depth has brought out delicate filaments that were barely visible before, along with more structure in the darker, ghost-like wisps threading through the centre.

What’s been especially rewarding is seeing how the Forax SHO blend responds as the hours stack up. The contrast between the cool OIII arcs and the warm, ember-like SII regions is starting to take on that three-dimensional look the Veil Nebula is famous for.

There’s still more work ahead — more time to collect, more fine-tuning across the panel seams, more experimenting with colour balance and star control — but this feels like a proper milestone. The mosaic is finally beginning to feel complete.

Two Views of the Veil Nebula
Two Views of the Veil Nebula

Forax Palette

The Veil Nebula in the Forax colour palette reveals a haunting, almost ethereal web of gas and dust. This palette enhances subtle contrasts, drawing out the intricate wisps that sweep across space like cosmic brushstrokes. What we’re seeing are the remnants of a massive star that exploded roughly 8,000 years ago, its energy still rippling through the interstellar medium. At about 110 light-years wide and located 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Veil is expanding at a staggering 1.5 million kilometres per hour. The Forax mapping really brings out the fine filaments, giving us a sense of just how delicate, yet vast, this supernova remnant truly is.

Hubble Palette (SHO)
In the Hubble palette, the Veil Nebula takes on an entirely different personality—bold, vivid, and structured. By assigning sulphur to red, hydrogen to green, and oxygen to blue, the SHO mapping creates a detailed chemical portrait of the nebula. This technique highlights the powerful shockwaves as they carve through the interstellar medium, showing glowing arcs where different elements collide and interact. The Veil isn’t just a pretty sight—it’s a living laboratory of astrophysics, helping astronomers study the long-term effects of stellar death. From its vibrant colours to its turbulent motion, the Hubble palette showcases the raw energy still locked inside this vast, expanding ghost of a star.