A Cluster in Carina

[atalas]

Hi all

NGC 2516 is a beautiful open cluster in the constillation of Carina.

Situated at about 1500ly and aproximately one degree in size It shines at a combined magnitude of 3.8 making for a great low power view.

I shot this through a ZS 66SD on a AP600E mount using the SXV-H9C.
Exposures were 40 x 2 minutes unguided and was taken at Magellan Observatory at Lake Bathurst.

This is my second attempt at this cluster and although I feel that the chip in my CCD is too small for a cluster of this size I hope I did a better job with It this time round.

I hope you enjoy.

[jase]

Looking good there Louie. You could always mosaic to overcome limited field size. Colours ok. You may want to look at ways of bringing out the colours more - http://www.aiwebs.com/tutorials/star-color/star-color.html

[Dr Nick]

Thats a beauty!! ;)

[Ric]

Very nice Louie, you've captured it perfectly.

Top stuff

[Octane]

Louie,

That is beautiful. Those stars look magnificent.

As always, well done!

Regards,
Humayun

[bluescope]

Nice star field Louie !
:thumbsup:

[allan gould]

Like this you mean?

[bluescope]

I thought the colour of the stars was fine in your original posting Louie !
Star colours are more subtle than Nebulae and Galaxies etc IMHO.

;)

[rogerg]

Nice image :thumbsup:

[atalas]

Thanks for taking the time look guy's ! much appreciated and the feedback is always welcome.

[skeltz]

Good job louie nicely done!!

[atalas]

Thanks rp !

[spearo]

nice and sharp,
love the red ones, they stand right out
well done
frank

[Garyh]

Beaut colors and nicely processed......a very nice open cluster image!!!

[atalas]

Thanks Frank and Gary,glad you like It.

[astroron]

Louie, me Not being an astroimager, but in my opinion your image looks the better of the two, the second looks a little unatural

[atalas]

Thanks for looking and your feedback Ron.

[richardo]

Hi Louie,
this is a lovely, delicate cluster... great objects while the moon's around too.
Your processing is very good and the background is lovely and smooth and very even....
I think your star colours are fine in the first version, just that you could probably use a bit of curve adjustment to bring out the fainter stars that are lurking in the back ground and bring a little more vitality to the actual clusters stars.
I had a mess in PS and the cluster becomes a lot more vibrant... without making the stars overly larger than they are in your first image.

From what I'm seeing, the little 66SD does a fine job matched to the SXH9...

Look forward to more of your work...

All the best
Rich

[atalas]

Hi Rich

Thanks for the feeback Rich, much appreciated and of cause your right in that in my worry in keeping the star sizes down I lost some of the dynamics of the cluster !