M45 - The Pleiades

M45

Acquisition
Date/Time: 2013/10/11 @ 21:12 EDT (2013/10/11 01:12 UTC).

Light Frames
55 frames x 30 seconds @ 400 ISO (total = 27:30 minutes).
16 frames x 240 seconds @ 400 ISO (total = 64 minutes).
TOTAL 91:30 minutes

Dark Frames 
5 frames x 240 seconds @ 400 ISO

Instruments:
Instrument: Orion 80 Short Tube @ f/5, Canon Rebel Xs (not modified).
Filtering: Lumicon Deep-Sky Filter
Guiding Instrument: Celestron 8 @ f/6.3 (Hirsch Focal Reducer),  Orion StarShoot Auto-guider and PHD Guiding software
Location: Hemmingford, QC, Canada (LO = -73 35 12  LA = 45 03 01).

Conditions
Transparency: 3/5
Turbulence: 3/5

Processing
Processed with DeepSky Stacker and Gimp.

Notes

I had many guiding problems at first. I had to update to PHD Guiding v1.14 "on the fly" (thx for the good 3G connection!!). That explains the series of 30-seconds shots. 

Once I had corrected those problems and tweaked the polar alignment I was good to go. I still had some problems with the guiding, though after 7-8 into a series of shots. I think that this was due to the usage of the Celestron 8 (even at f/6.3) for the guiding. For one thing, I didn't have many choices for guiding stars and, secondly, I think that this was too precise an instrument for my CG-5 mount and that resulted in overshooting that PHD always tried to compensate for.

During the next session, I will make further tests with the Orion 80 for guiding to see if I have the same problems.