NGC 2506

[petevasey]

This dense quite bright (mag 7.6) open cluster in Monoceros unfortunately at my location never rises above 24 degrees altitude, so is always seen through fairly thick atmosphere. Although last night (10th March) included an almost full Moon, it was the only clear night for several days, so I took a chance. Clouds arrived earlier, so imaging didn't start until shortly before transit, so most of the time the target was descending into thicker atmosphere which took its toll on the star sharpness. I was set up with a reducer for another target, and because of back focus issues couldn't use my SXAO unit which might have helped. Nevertheless with a fair amount of processing I'm reasonably happy although I feel the moonlight may have washed out some of the colours. I may pay it another visit this season without the reducer, depends on the weather! QSI 683 on RC10 with AP67 reducer. Resultant focal length 1540 mm. Luminance 6 x 10 minutes unbinned, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes binned 2x2

Cheers,

Peter

Edited March 11, 2020 by petevasey