Yet another big improvement on my old attempt at capturing the cluster, way back in 2014. It’s encouraging how well the AstroTrac performs at longer focal lengths without the need for autoguiding. The ability to capture two minute sub exposures at 400mm gives a huge jump in detail.

A healthy 1.5 hours of integration time is enough to reveal fine whisps of interstellar dust illuminated by the Seven Sisters, despite bortle 6 skies. The plan is to use the long autumn nights to capture more data on this target. Thereby revealing more detail and diminishing noise levels. Getting out to a dark site at some point in the near future would be a good start!