Mirachs neighbours

[wimvb]

A  wide field image around Mirach. Nothing remarkable, but it does show relative positions of some familiar DSO's.

The central galaxy is M31. M33 is on the opposite side of Mirach.

The bright star at the left edge is Schedar (a-Cass)

Just below is a tiny nebula NGC 281 and the smudge above is a cluster NGC 7789.

image details:

Camera: Pentax K20D with 35 mm kit lens f/4 at ISO 1600 on an EQ3-2 mount

22*2 min subs, flats, bias, darks

I used cosmetic correction on the raw light frames before debayering, calibration and integration. I found that this makes noise reduction much easier.

In the high resolution original, dust lanes are clearly visible in M31, but this is lost in the jpeg.

[goodricke1]

It's kinda cool that the two most distant naked-eye objects are close to each other in the sky and equi-distant from a bright star.

[laudropb]

Very nice widefield image. Gives a very good idea of the scales involved.