Puppis Clusters and a PN

[Graham Darke]

The field around the open star clusters M46 and M47 is rich although it never gets very high from my location in Northern England. This view was from my Bortle 8 garden last night as measured with my new Sky Quality Meter. I got an SQM of 18.65. The field of view encompasses no fewer than 5 open star clusters being: M46 (left of centre) M47 (right of centre) NGC2423 ( the large loose group above M47) NGC2425 (the tight grouping just below the very centre of the image) and NGC2414 (the small cluster near the bottom right corner) as well as the planetary nebula NGC2438 which which sits on the top left edge of M46.  When I'm allowed to go to a dark site again I might see if I can see all of these objects in a single eyepiece view. 

Image details: TS71SDQ scope (450mm focal length), ZWO ASI071MC-Pro camera at 0 degrees C with a gain setting of 150, IDAS D2 LP filter, AZEQ6 mount. Guided and captured with ASI Air. 60 x 60s with 20 darks, 20 flats and 20 dark flats. Stacked in DSS and processed in Startools 7.