M35 from the early hours of 21.1.09

[urbanastro]

After imaging comet Kushida, I tried M35 in Gemini in the early hours of 21.1.09. This is taken with a Tak 180 Astrograph at f2.8 and Canon 40D (2x5min subs and 6x3min subs). It’s a great combination of clusters for imaging due to the contrasting star colours:

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/6401672_oJTsN#458875789_5S2ne-A-LB

regards

malcolm

[jgs001]

Malcolm, that's a lovely image. Much more refined than the one I did a few nights ago.

[urbanastro]

This image is the first time I’ve taken 5 minute sub exposures with the Canon 40D (only done it up till now with ccd cameras), though most of the subs were 3mins. I autoguided this capture via a separate SBIG camera on a side-by-side mounted 90mm refractor and the 5min subs really paid off with much greater depth of detail. I recently acquired PHD guiding software and it’s really made my imaging a lot easier and more accurate, allowing subs on the ccd cameras up to 15-20 minutes each. The star colours are brought out even more with the Noels Actions plugin for Photoshop.

Malcolm

[jgs001]

Thanks for all the detail Malcolm.

[brianb]

Really nice image. Just out interest, how much saturation boost are you applying? The reason I ask is that when stacking images in DSS I find that the star colours are usually very muted - perhaps even more so than they appear visually. I usually apply a saturation boost of 20 in post processing in DSS, 35 brings out the green of cometary comae more.

[urbanastro]

I rarely boost saturation in photoshop Brian, the colour all came from Noels Actions increase star colour although star colours were obvious on the original 16bit tiffs.

Malcolm

[Paul]

A lovely shot Malcolm, especially through Wimbledon's orange sky! Good to see NGC2158 there too, as you say, an excellent contrast in colour and size to M35.

Brian, I tend use about 30% saturation boost in DSS as the default settings result in an almost monochrome image.

[martinastro]

Lovely image Malcom!!. Great detail, resolution, and colours.

M35 and its companion are two objects I always observe with the scope. The ghostly glow of NGC2158 in contrast to the rich cluster makes an awesome sight, and image. NGC2158 has been reported as a new comet many times and coming second only to NGC 404 in Andromeda which has fooled even experienced observers...a useless piece of trivia 

[Roman White]

Great image, Malcolm. I like the colours too. 

NGC2158 has been reported as a new comet many times

[urbanastro]

Thanks all