OPEN CLUSTER M34 (NGC 1039)
This Messier Object is a loose open cluster of bright stars. It looks nice in a wide-field eyepiece. There are a lot of faint tiny galaxies and planetary nebula in this image also.
(click on image for larger size):
Image acquisition and processing details:
| Telescope: | William Optics Zenithstar 105mm APO refractor, f/5.6 with 0.8 FR/FF. |
| Mount: | Celestron CGE, remotely controlled with NexRemote and TheSky Professional. |
| Camera: | SBIG ST-10XME cooled to -20C, internal guiding. All images binned 1x1. |
| Filters, Exposure Times: | Luminance 9 min (9x1 min), Red 18 min (9x2 min), Green 16 min (8x2 min), Blue 18 min (9x2 min). Additional data was obtained but discarded. |
| Dates (Universal Coordinated Time): | 5-Nov-2007 |
| Moon Phase: | 19% |
| Location: | Xanadu Observatory, poolside |
| Software: | MaximDL, TheSky, CCDAutopilot, CCDInspector, CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop |
| Notes: | It might be worth taking longer exposures and using some creative processing to bring out all the tiny background objects a little more. |