Clusters
Open and Globular
M45 The Seven Sisters
M45 The Seven Sisters
Is it a cluster or is it a nebula? My previous version of this ever popular target is in the Diffuse Nebula section...
20x250s Subs, Gain 120 (Unity), Offset 8, Temp -15C.
Image date, time and location: 2019-08-31 02:00 Manche, FranceTelescope aperture and focal ratio: TS1506UNC f4, TS KomakorrCamera and filters used: ZWO ASI294MC Pro, Baader Neodymnium 1.25" filterProcessing applied: Pixinsight (ABE,PCC,SCNR,HDRMT,HT,CSat,DT for PI users), Darktable
20x250s Subs, Gain 120 (Unity), Offset 8, Temp -15C.
Image date, time and location: 2019-08-31 02:00 Manche, FranceTelescope aperture and focal ratio: TS1506UNC f4, TS KomakorrCamera and filters used: ZWO ASI294MC Pro, Baader Neodymnium 1.25" filterProcessing applied: Pixinsight (ABE,PCC,SCNR,HDRMT,HT,CSat,DT for PI users), Darktable
Globular clusters are good targets when there is a bit of Moon in the other half of the sky. I'm particularly proud of getting colour and detail in NGC5263 at the bottom and there are some other galactic blobs around as well. The sky was excellent last night. Click the image for a full size, uncropped, unbinned version.
41 of 50 x 250s, Gain 121 (unity +1 for luck), Offset 4, Temperature -15c. Stacked using PI BatchPreprocessingFD (Micheal Covington version) so Flat Darks are used instead of Bias frames. The stacked image was then loaded into StarTools for stretching, gradient removal, colour correction deconvolution, denoising and saving as JPG (seems to have a very good algorithm for this).
Image date, time and location: 2019-04-12 23:00-01:00CET Manche, FranceTelescope aperture and focal ratio: TS1506UNC f4, TS KomakorrCamera and filters used: ZWO ASI294MC Pro, Baader Neodymnium 1.25" filterProcessing applied: Pixinsight, StarTools, Irfanview
41 of 50 x 250s, Gain 121 (unity +1 for luck), Offset 4, Temperature -15c. Stacked using PI BatchPreprocessingFD (Micheal Covington version) so Flat Darks are used instead of Bias frames. The stacked image was then loaded into StarTools for stretching, gradient removal, colour correction deconvolution, denoising and saving as JPG (seems to have a very good algorithm for this).
Image date, time and location: 2019-04-12 23:00-01:00CET Manche, FranceTelescope aperture and focal ratio: TS1506UNC f4, TS KomakorrCamera and filters used: ZWO ASI294MC Pro, Baader Neodymnium 1.25" filterProcessing applied: Pixinsight, StarTools, Irfanview
Open Cluster
Image date, time and location: 20151003 Manche FranceTelescope aperture and focal ratio: Meade LX90 8", Baader Alan Gee II TelecompressorCamera and filters used: Canon 1000D Modded, no filtersProcessing applied: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop CS2, Irfanview
The Double Cluster
Image date, time and location: 2010-10-19 00:30 Beckenham, KentTelescope aperture and focal ratio: Meade LX90 8" Baader Alan Gee II focal reducer ~ f5.5Camera and filters used: Canon 350Da, Astronomik CLS-CCD clip filterProcessing applied: Deep Sky Stacker, size reduced x4