OPEN CLUSTER M35 (NGC 2168)
M35 consists of realtively young, mostly bluish stars. Right next to this large open cluster is another smaller open cluster, NGC2158. The stars in NGC2158 are much older - roughly 2 billion years old, compared to 150 million years for m35 - so they are redder.
(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 -30C, internal guiding. All images binned 1x1. |
| Filters, Exposure Times: | Red, Green, and Blue 18 min each (9x2 min each). No luminance data was used because dew made it necessary to shut down. |
| Date (Universal Coordinated Time): | 2-Dec-2007 |
| Moon Phase: | 34% |
| Location: | Xanadu Observatory, poolside |
| Software: | MaximDL, TheSky, CCDAutopilot, CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop, Astronomy Tools. |
| Notes: | By the time this sequence was finished, the telescope was soaking
wet and the objective was covered with dew. Note in the upper left is an asteroid, it shows up as a short red streak, then a green streak, then blue. I have not identified it yet. |