A modest Double Cluster

[Bloom]

After more than 6 years of astroimaging this is the first decent Double Cluster. In the previous three or four efforts I have failedto produce a decent stack due to several factors (windy conditions, sudden appearance of clouds, bad quality lens). As if there existed some sort of "astroimager's Murphy's Law", and the Double Cluster proved to be a difficult target...

12x4min, Skywatcher Equinox 80/Televue field flattener TRF 2008 (F=400mm), NEQ6, Atik450L OSC camera. Guiding: Starlight Xpress Lodestar with Stellarvue FV50 9x50 finderscope, and PHD. Image scale is 1.77 arcsec/pixel. Image processing was done with IRIS, Artemis RGB, Astroart 5, Imagesplus, and Paint Shop Pro X2.

[Gina]

Very nice

[fredster]

That's a lovely image of the Double Cluster. Worth the 6 year wait!

[sologuitarist61]

Nice image