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This is M39, or most of it. The brighter stars in the image are members of this open cluster in the constellation Cygnus. This image was started around 4:40 am on the morning of 4-25-10. The sun was going to come up (my last worthwhile exposures were taken around 5:47), so it was time to hurry and find one more object to image. A bright open cluster was an ideal target. The cluster is larger than what you see here, but it spilled out of the field of view.This is 62x60" taken with the SXVF-H9C through the AT8RC. Capture and preprocessing was done in Nebulosity 2 and touchup in Photoshop CS3. Bias frames subtracted; no darks; no flats. The moon was 80+% full. Collimation (or possibly guiding, I suppose) was still just a touch off, but this is a colorful, quite usable image nonetheless. If I let perfection get in the way of enjoying the images, I'd never have taken any.
2 comments:
Nice colors on this one. I like the diffraction spikes, too. In my opinion, open clusters look best through reflectors. I did a little reading up on that AT8RC. It sounds like a sweet scope!
Thanks again, Rory. The colors come from not over-exposing the individual star cores. I'm learning. The AT8RC? Thus far it is sweet---everything I'd hoped it would be, and then some: No-nonsense, solid construction; flat images; much higher resolution than I'm used to; much greater light-gathering ability than my smaller scopes; a nice focal length (both with a reducer and without). Thus far, it's also held its focus no matter a 8C drop. This scope will provide many years' use, I predict.
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