Mars takes up beekeeping...

[661-pete]

...and I get back to a bit of imaging after my long winter break - and back to posting on the forum too (sorry folks).

Wasn't quite sure where to put this, but I suppose it counts as a 'special' - taken on 16 April when Mars was closest to M44. Only really done for a bit of fun, I don't really claim any merit in it. Now I see why I ought to improve my spider, the clumsy 2-arm secondary support doesn't make for a good effect...

Haven't tried imaging M44 before, it's a bit big for my 250mm/F4.8 setup and I did this one as a mosaic of two panes, one with Mars in it and the other with most of the Beehive. Both panes 13 x 45sec, ISO1600.

Of course this presentation grossly over-exposes Mars but I like the colour effect. Had to do quite a bit of fiddling and partial blurring to get a nasty grid-like camera artefact out of the glow around Mars.

The image is very tall and narrow, sorry to all of you who're fed up with hitting the scroll wheel!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Now that's an astro pic and a half. Love the colours. Lookas like Mars is going supernova.

[richbyers]

very nice!

rich