Planetary Nebula and Open Clusters

[cuivenion]

Had a great time last night despite the wind keeping my exposure lengths down to mostly 15 seconds. Quite a few of these objects are new to me and it was especially great to view the blue snowball and the blinking planetary, I've searched for these visually with no success in the past.

I decided to not use the reducer and the images are all the better for it I think. As there was no lens I did away with the IR cut filter as well. I was using an AstrEQ EQ5 with a Skywatcher 130p, I was going to use the 200p, but the wind put paid to that. I was using an Altair GPCAM with Sharpcap live stacking.

I'm looking forward to slightly longer exposures and more aperture when it's calmer.

Here are:

NGC 7662 (Blue Snowball), with Crop. 3 minute Stacked 15 second exposures.

NGC 6826 The Blinking Planetary, with crop. 3 minute Stacked 15 second exposures.

M57 Ring Nebula, 3 minute Stacked 15 second exposures. I was going to try longer exposures with this, but the wind was really strong at this point.

NGC 40 The Bow Tie Nebula. I pushed the exposure on this, it's 11 x 60 seconds, but the image may have suffered because I was using a 15 second dark frame. Here it is regardless.

M76 Little Dumbbell. 77 x 15 seconds (19.25 minutes stacked) Not great couldn't bring this one out, I think longer exposures would do a lot for this object.

On to the open clusters! All of these were 12 x 15 seconds.

M11 Wild Duck Cluster.

M39.

M103. I'm happy with how this turned out, I think I'm going to have to look at how I image clusters, and see if I can get better results.

Any advice or criticisms are welcome, it's great to hear from fellow EAA enthusiasts!

 

 

[RobertI]

Excellent captures and a prodigious quantity, must have been an enjoyable session!  That GP CAM is bringing out the colours in those PNs really well. Using the native focal length has helped the image scale on those tiny planetaries with very nice results, I particularly like the Blue Snowball. I also found the Little Dumbell surprisingly faint. The clusters are looking very natural. Keep 'em coming!

[cuivenion]

Thanks Rob, just wish I could get out a bit more often!

[Ain Soph Aur]

Great post and captures! Unfortunately my Astronomical League Planetary Nebula project post on the other site was deleted after a few months and I was sternly warned to cease and desist. Gotta love SGL as being much more open minded to us EAA/VA folks!

[cuivenion]

Thanks Ain!