First attempt at the Double Cluster.

[Nightshift Nob]

My first attempt at the Double Cluster captured over two nights during the snow moon at 96% and 98% illumination from a Bortle 7 zone 8 miles south of Manchester. 

 

skywatcher Equinox ED80 pro

Canon eos600D  

[MartinB]

I like this!  The double cluster is one of the few targets which I think, generally, looks better through a scope than when imaged but you have managed to retain a sense of vibrancy with the bright, slightly bloated (a good thing!) blue stars.  Nicely processed.

[Gerr]

Good effort - Nice round stars with good colour too.

I have a similar camera (650D) which is Astro modded so trying to achieve good and true star colour is a challenge for me. Always difficult to process without losing colour and bloating them. Then there are the halos!!! 

Gerr.

[Nightshift Nob]

16 hours ago, MartinB said:

I like this!  The double cluster is one of the few targets which I think, generally, looks better through a scope than when imaged but you have managed to retain a sense of vibrancy with the bright, slightly bloated (a good thing!) blue stars.  Nicely processed.

 

12 hours ago, Gerr said:

Good effort - Nice round stars with good colour too.

I have a similar camera (650D) which is Astro modded so trying to achieve good and true star colour is a challenge for me. Always difficult to process without losing colour and bloating them. Then there are the halos!!! 

Gerr.

Thankyou!

I tried the arcsine stretch approach for the first time. Pretty sure I've not got it nailed down and some more reading up on it required but for the most part it makes a good job of keeping the stars under control. Just the blue halos seem to go mental so will look into that. 

[Roy Foreman]

Better than my first attempt at the DC - well done !

Surprised you are getting blue halos. I have an Equinox 120 ED and never get blue halos. I often get red ones when used with an astro modified DSLR (Nikon D810a) in combination with a IDAS LPR filter, but I think that is quite common.

Nice image

[Spile]

On 13/03/2021 at 12:09, MartinB said:

The double cluster is one of the few targets which I think, generally, looks better through a scope than when imaged

As I spend more time looking, I find an increasing number of objects I am seeing have more of a Wow! factor than digital ones.

[Nightshift Nob]

14 hours ago, Roy Foreman said:

Better than my first attempt at the DC - well done !

Surprised you are getting blue halos. I have an Equinox 120 ED and never get blue halos. I often get red ones when used with an astro modified DSLR (Nikon D810a) in combination with a IDAS LPR filter, but I think that is quite common.

Nice image

Thankyou.

I too was using a now older IDAS LPS p2 filter that night and it was the first up on the suspect list for the halos. Probably a good place to start further investigations...👍