A strange result M67

[Stub Mandrel]

I tried getting an hours worth of subs from M67, a close but very ancient (about 4 billion years, like the Solar System) open cluster, full of stars like our sun, using the 150PL.

To play safe with the long FL I used 60 second subs, but I forgot to change the ISO from 100 to 800 (I had just been imaging the moon). Cobined with teh awul moonglow, i shouldn't have got anything, and the resulting image is very flat with an obvious lack of fainter stars.

What is interesting, though, is that the star colours came out very nicely (after a touch of HLVG). It was interesting how teh low ISO had stopped teh stars belaching, I didn't have to do any blur or other effect to spread the star colour.

Lots of yellow stars as you would expect from a cluster full of 'suns', it but also has 30 'blue stragglers' which are apparently very bright and is probably why they appear over-presented in this image.

So, M67 deserves a re-visit, but even though this is a poor image, it has some interest! (and it helps me towards completing my Messier Quest).

 

[wimvb]

Nice catch. I think that the file conversion in the forum software dropped the star colour.

Thanks for sharing

[Stub Mandrel]

13 hours ago, wimvb said:

Nice catch. I think that the file conversion in the forum software dropped the star colour.

Thanks for sharing

It's there on my screen, but I kept it subtle. Here's stronger version:

[wimvb]

Looks good. While I don't mind a good spike, my favourite image is the one without.

[Stub Mandrel]

I just thought I would play with Noel's Spike Action.

It's a very flat image, more of a record than an artistic achievement, I know I can do much better next time.

Stars are down to about mag 15.35, I should be able to push 17.