The Horsehead Nebula

This image of the Horsehead Nebula consists of just over 4 hours of total integration time. Stacked and processed in Siril, GraXpert, Affinity, and Topaz.

M 45

M 45 has several names in different cultures: the Pleiades (Greece), the Seven Sisters (Europe), Subaru Japan--(they can famously be seen in the car maker's logo, where there are only 6), the Seven Star Girls/the Orphan Boys (Native American cutures, Yunggarmurra Water Girls (Australian Aboriginal culture), the "Netted Star" in Tolkein's Middle Earth, etc. They were an importantherald to the navigation season in the Meditarranean Sea in classical Greek times, and they have great significance in many other cultures. The cluster is dominated by young, hot, blue stars. The nebula surrounding them is not thought to be related to the cluster, but is an interstellar nebula through which the cluster is passing. This image was created from a 10s stack, with a total integration time of about 8 hours. My Bortle 8/9 skies made managing gradients problematic, but the overall image is not too bad, and some decent detial is visible in the nebula. The rainbow nebulosity appears to be an artifact created by the star removal process during processing.