NGC2451 and NGC2477

[iceman]

Hi all

We finally had some clear skies on Friday night, until about 12:30am when the clouds rolled in. Unfortunately the transparency was shocking due to moisture in the air, and the Moon didn't set until after 11pm as it was.

I decided to image this nice double-cluster until the "better" objects rose above the trees and the sky got darker. I did finish this run, but the clouds came while waiting, and ended my night. NGC2451 is the open cluster upper right, and NGC2477 is the open cluster lower left.

This image consists of 12x 3minute exposures @ ISO800. ICNR was used, and flats calibration was done using a 15x median combined flat image.

Reasonably happy with how it turned out, just happy to be out imaging again. I had some problems with warped stars on the left hand side of the image - not sure if something went wrong with my WO 0.8x reducer or it was a result of the stacking (there was slight field rotation due to inaccurate polar alignment). The right side of the image was much better. I'll check the raw frames and post a new thread.

Needed more exposures and a dark sky, but otherwise the object fits quite nicely in the 480mm focal length of the ED80 with reducer.

Unmodded Canon350D in ED80 on EQ6.

Thanks for looking.

[Phil]

wow stunning shot Mike well done. I got to see the moon last night for about 2 sec. First thing i have seen for a while now with all the crappy weather we are having up hear.
Phil

[Garyh]

That is a very pleasing image Mike!
Nice colors and well composed even some dark dust lanes thrown in!
cheers Gary

[glenc]

I like both the image and the subject Mike.

[EzyStyles]

love it mike!. the objects looks abit 3d and great fov. !

[Ric]

Great image Mike, I love the colours and the clarity.

cheers

[tornado33]

Gee thats well composed, excellent contrast between a dense and sparse cluster, excellent colour too
Scott

[Matty P]

A vey nice image Mike. :thumbsup:

The colour and detail is amazing. :)

[monoxide]

looks good Mike,
nicely composed good colour and its good to see something different than those "better" objects :)

[theodog]

Nice cluster poster shot Mike.
Colours look great.
Not all objects need hours of light to look good.
Well done.

[Alchemy]

Good to see you are persevering with the deep sky stuff...... at least until jupiter returns anyway ;)

[iceman]

Thanks Phil - I don't think we've had it quite as bad as you have, but it's been terrible here too. I think we've had a total of 3 imaging opportunities in 2008 so far :(


Thanks Gary, I took some extra time on the colour balance and levels on this one, after my green background on eta carinae :)


Thanks Glen - I was looking in SNP for something to image before the usual suspects rose higher, and was pleased to see that this pairing would fit nicely in my FOV *and* it was above the trees.


Thanks Eric. I love the hot blue stars in NGC2451 jumping out from the background.


Thanks Ric, much appreciated.


Cheers Scott, it took quite a bit of time to compose them properly, having to rotate the camera 90deg and keep the cluster as far away from the seagulls I was getting near the edge.


Thanks Matty, I really enjoy imaging open clusters and can't wait for Scorpius to get up higher.


heh thanks.. given a chance I would've imaged the "showcase" objects because DSO imaging is so new to me, I still haven't imaged 75% of the popular objects. But it's nice to have a chance to image something different, too.


Thanks Theo. I would've preferred to go a bit deeper to smoothen out the background a bit more, and bring out some more of the red in the background stars. I still remember Octane's brilliant shot of NGC2451 from Magellan Observatory. Seeing his shot made me target this cluster.


heh thanks C. I had actually planned to do an all-nighter, finishing with Jupiter in the morning, but clouds put an end to those plans (as usual).

I'm really enjoying DSO imaging and want to do it better, but slow steps.. still lots to learn but i'm finally starting to get a "feel" for DSO image processing.

Oh but of course I want a modded and cooled 40D, or a dedicated astro camera :)

[[1ponders]]

Nice shootin' Tex! I like the composition. re your warped stars. Does the Saxon ED80 have a compression ring in the focuser or does it have 2 screws like the Orion? If it has two screws it may be that they are not keeping the reducer orthogonal to the optical train of the scope. :shrug:

[strongmanmike]

Lovely image Mike, nice star colour saturation a fine image.

This is a great contrast of clusters huh?

Not often imaged that pair, I did the pair 3 years ago with my 80ED and SXVH9 but I like your larger FOV though.

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/55286325/large

Mike