M44 Beehive Cluster

[Albireo380]

I got out for a couple of hours tonight, down at a reasonably dark site south of Glasgow. I was playing about with the camera at prime focus on a William Optics SDII (80mm), focal length 500mm.

This is a single exposure of M44, using a Canon 350D 60 second exposure at ISO800. Tweaked slightly in photoshop to remove sky glow.

I was quite pleased.

Tom

[MartinB]

Nicely framed Tom. Interesting blue halos. Do you think that's due to some nebulosity?

[garymcgrory]

hi tom,

Great image remember last year when saturn was almost right in the middle of the beehive. Lov the cloours you have captured. Where did you end up going? I live in kilmarnock and go to eaglesham moor when the wife lets me.

Gary

[lunator]

Tom

Nice pic.

M44 is a lovely cluster

Cheers

Ian

[Albireo380]

Hi Gary,

I go down the M74 to J14 (Crawford). I go through the village and take a left out towards a wee reservoir. Along the single track road (a mile or so) are some BIG passing places. The sky is pretty dark (almost nothing from Glasgow to the North West, and only a little light from Crawford to the south - 20 Sodium street lamps 2 miles away). In a 2-3 hour session, only 2 cars pass - so that is okay. If You go 5 miles further, down towards the Baer Reservoir, it is even darker.

Tom

[SteelRat]

Very nice Beehive capture Tom 8)

[barkis]

That is a very nice image of M44 Tom. Also called Praesepe which is Latin for Manger.

You can perseve the cluster as nebulous with the naked eye, But the scope reveals about 40 small star, a lovely sight in the eyepiece,

and you have got it spot on with your exposure. Credit for the above info. goes to the Messier Album.

Barkis.