M46 including PN NGC2438

[geoflewis]

A timely contest for me as I've been working through a few of the Messier Open clusters the last few weeks. This one of M46 which was captured on 7 March 2018 also includes planetary nebula (PN) NGC2438. The data captured with a QSI583wsg-5 through my 4" TSAPO100Q (L=6x600; RGB=3x600 each).

The PN can be seen at the 8 o'clock position in the cluster (looks like a dust donought ). This is a line of sight association,  the PN being a foreground object some 3,000 LY distant, with M46 about twice as far away at some 5,500 LY.

Geof

[coatesg]

Super capture, esp with so few exposures!

[geoflewis]

4 minutes ago, coatesg said:

Super capture, esp with so few exposures!

Thanks Graeme, I've been adding to my collection of Messier images, so these are just fairly quick grabs to tick them off the list. I didn't know about the PN until I saw the first downladed image and genuinely thought that is was a dust donought...!! Cheers, Geof