M2 (NGC 7089) Globular Cluster in Aquarius

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Not a commonly imaged subject! (I couldn't find any other examples on IIS, unless I missed it?).

M2 is about 37,500 light years from Earth, and spans 175 light years of space. Containing more than 150,000 stars, it is one of the largest globular clusters known.

Taken on 1 August using an ED80T CF astrograph with an Orion Starshoot G3 mono CCD. My 'real AP' learning kit Finally got around to processing it.

26 x Luminance
8 x Red, 8 x Green, 8 x Blue

All subs were unbinned, duration of 3 minutes each (2.5 hours total integration).

There was patchy cloud throughout the night, so I had to discard quite a few hazy subs! This was my last effort with the SSG3 before switching to an OAG (I haven't produced a proper image with the new setup though).

Guided using Metaguide with an ASI120MM-S camera.

Captured and pre-processed with flats (light box), bad pixel map and bias in Nebulosity. Post-processed in StarTools.

Full capture/processing details and higher rez version here: http://www.astrobin.com/114389/

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Nice image Barry. Sounds like you're having fun with the G3 "trainer" setup before you get the big gun.

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Thanks Kevin, I certainly am! Now that I've got the OAG working, and will be moving permanently to dark skies in a few months, I hope to go much longer for each sub (and move to more nebulous and NB-suitable targets)...