NGC 869 & 884 The Double Cluster @ 105mm

[johnfosteruk]

Marvellous vis session last night with near perfect transparency and seeing as the night went on, the only thing that would have improved matters is being at a dark site rather than the back garden but you can't have it all!!!

Anyway, as an after thought I popped the camera on the tripod with the cheap sigma 55-200 at 105mm and pointed up near the zenith to find this old favourite in the live view.

100 x 6s frames @ ISO 3200 later, DSS and a little sharpening, curves and saturation in Photoshop and I'm pleased considering the little effort involved. No darks, just used sigma clipping in DSS.

Next time I'll put it on the mount though because with rotation I lost most of the frame despite adjustments as I went. It was too late to get my head around what was needed to keep the framing!! 

Hence these are crops, also the stars are a little eggy but I'll take that considering..

Through the Eyepiece

Solved via Astrometry.net (Because I love green circles on images )

[johnfosteruk]

Seeing as how CLO lied to me again this evening I've been tinkering. I took a wide field at 50mm a few weeks ago with Melotte 20, so I've put together a little informational piece incorporating this closer view, the Melotte 20 is a crop of the original 50mm but I'll probably do a 105mm version too and update it.

Jess, the niece who's into the hobby loves these when I do them, runs off to the books for more info. Magic.

[Martin Meredith]

Great graphic -- thanks for putting it together. Melotte 20 is wonderful in binoculars. You've also captured the line of curving stars that I always seem to use to find the Double Cluster(looking like an elephant's trunk in your orientation if the eyes are the two clusters). 

Martin

[johnfosteruk]

12 minutes ago, Martin Meredith said:

You've also captured the line of curving stars that I always seem to use to find the Double Cluster(looking like an elephant's trunk in your orientation if the eyes are the two clusters). 

Martin

I love that chain. It's what I use too. This will be the first area i image with a driven mount I think. I really want to produce an image of it with pinpoint stars.