After a 6 month gap I fired up the SBIG ST2000XM and for a trial run, pointed the ‘scope at the Jewel Box to reacquaint myself with CCD imaging. The CCD window promptly frosted over when I set the cooling to a balmy -10 ºC so I re-set it to +1 ºC in an attempt to clear the tendrils of frost. This took longer than I though and so there is some evidence of this in the attached (cropped) LRGB image of this most beautiful cluster.
5 mins each LRGB, Tak Mewlon 180 F12, SBIG ST2000XM CCD camera with CFW9 filter wheel.
Like riding a push bike, CCD imaging isn’t something easily forgotten and I was pleased with this the results of this test run despite a few minor problems such as ccd frosting.
For comparison, here is the link to the ESA website for
“A Snapshot of the Jewel Box cluster with the ESO VLT”
Cheers
Dennis