A piece of Perseus, from Melotte 20 to the Double Cluster

[johnfosteruk]

Out at midnight observing and this area looked so pretty so I carried on at the eyepiece but whipped the Nikon and the tripod out with the 1.8 Nikkor nifty fifty. 

The area was at a high enough altitude at 50mm to let it drift through and use the intervalometer then let DSS sort it out. 

100 x 6s lights

100 darks

100 bias

Registered and stacked in DSS, minimal processing in Photoshop - Curves stretched, mild saturation boost and mild unsharp mask. Quite pleased with this one but I'd like to do the double at a higher fl. That can wait till I'm in possession of a motorised mount though as I don't have the aperture on my longer lenses to give it short enough exposures I don't think

Shamelessly nicked the idea for the close presentation in the 2nd/3rd images from Gnomus/Mr Penrice.

[Lorne]

Cracking image, Perseus to Cassiopeia is a great area, especially for binoculars, lots of lovely multicoloured objects there that pop out.

[xtreemchaos]

great shots John, lovely coloured stars mate, nice and round.  well done.  charl.

[johnfosteruk]

Thanks both, you're very kind

[abhoriel]

the Nikon nifty 50 is brilliant,  I love it.

Great shot

[Pete Presland]

Nicely captured and presented.