The Southern Pleiades (IC 2602) in Carina

[Octane]

Hi all,

Long time no post in here.

Dusting off the cobwebs while I wait for the concrete pour for the observatory. I've set up my gear (with the DSLR and not the CCD camera) next to the hole; to dust off the cobwebs and to start practising processing again.

So, here's a nice little cluster imaged over a few nights.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Takahashi FSQ-106N, Takahashi Extender-Q 1.6x
54 x 300.0s (270 mins) f/8 at 848.0mm iso1600

A higher resolution version available here (http://octane2.ddns.net:81/astro/ic2602.html).

Thanks for looking. :)

[Placidus]

Very pretty. By going deep you've brought out a small, distant, but very rich cluster toward 2 o'clock. The colours are restrained but pretty, with some nice rich orange background stars about.

[Atmos]

Nice to see you getting back into it, and you've come back with a cracker :) Nicely done :)

[el_draco]

One of the best images of this cluster I've seen. Really nice :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Very pretty, H. I like the contrast with the rich background star field.

[strongmanmike]

A lovely image Humayun, it's a great cluster, welcome back...:)

Mike

[LewisM]

Nice one H!

I bags coming over to your place once the Obs is done :) :P (though am enjoying the view from the airport anyway :P)

[atalas]

The H is back!excellent contrast and I love the way the SP's look like there floating on top of the deep rich star field....awesome dude:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Curious why you wanted more focal length on this one H?I would of thought the native 500mm at f/5 would be ideal.

ps. good to see you decide on a slab for the obs.

[Adriano]

Beautiful open cluster. Nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

[Octane]

Mike and Trish,

Thanks, guys! I try to be careful in how far I push the colours. Given that this was a very small dataset, I'm quite pleased to see some dust starting to poke through the top there, too!



Colin,

Cheers, mate. It's been a very long time between images. My wife is going to hate me all over again. :D



Rom,

Thanks, mate. I will re-do this once the observatory is set up with the CCD. I hope I will do it proper justice, then. :)



Rick,

Thank you. :D



Mike,

Thanks -- it's great to be back! But, as mentioned above, I'm looking forward to the missus complaining about me coming to bed at odd hours. Once the observatory is built, then, that'll go back to normal. :)



Cheers, guys.

H

[Octane]

Lewis,

Come help me build it. :P

It's just going to be a concrete pier with an Absco pool pump shed around it. I will modify the roof (on rails) and automate it. I foresee a Seletek Dragonfly in my future.



Louie,

I quickly made a mask and brought the background down a few ticks with curves in Photoshop (for the web version; the original is still untouched).

As for why the focal length: I've had the Extender-Q 1.6x since I got the scope and have never used it. I figured, while I'm playing around, I may as well throw it on. In fact, I also had the Canon EF 1.4x II teleconverter on for a bit, as well. That gave me almost 1,200mm at f/11 with no discernible CA -- I was very impressed. The Extender-Q 1.6x has now been taken off and I'm back to imaging at the native focal length. I'm working on a rarely seen area of the sky, shooting with an unmodified DSLR for the time being. :)

I'm actually not laying a slab down -- just going to pour a pier. I don't know how long we are going to live where we are, and, the wife didn't want me pouring concrete for no reason. A concrete base/pier was a compromise. :)



Adriano,

Thanks, mate. It certainly is a beautiful object. I have always loved open clusters (the first things I imaged were open clusters), and, will be devoting considerable time to them once the observatory is built.



Thanks, everyone.

H