NGC869/884 - Double Cluster

[GordonH]

Hi All

The sky was clear for a few hours the other night, but as the moon was up I thought I'd have a go at star clusters so I decided on the double cluster. This was taken with a Takahashi FSQ106ED at f5, FLI ML8300 at -35c on a Paramount ME autoguided by Lodestar and OAG.

Red 30x5 minutes

Green 29x5 minutes

Blue 25x5 minutes

The discrepancy between the number of sub frames was because of a meridian flip (at the end of the green run) and mist and cloud after 25 frames of the blue run

RBI annihilator was used for the raw frames and matching darks but not for the flats and their darks as the short exposure times negate the necessity for RBI resolution.

Processing just consisted of levels and curves and gradient removal

I have done a wider field version of this last year which can be seen on the star cluster page of the image gallery on my website

Imaging The Heavens - Home Page for comparison

The full size high resolution image can be seen at the following link

NGC869 and NGC884 - Double Cluster in Perseus photo - Gordon Haynes photos at pbase.com

Thanks for looking

Best wishes

Gordon