The Jewel Box is a small open cluster in Crux, near the bright star Beta Crucis and the Coalsack Nebula. Situated 6,400 light years from the Sun, it is only about 16 million years old.
This was a test image, to assess the DSO capability of my ZWO ASI120MM guide camera. It is uncooled, and really meant for planetary imaging and as a sensitive autoguider (the main purpose I put it to!), but I thought it might be fun to try it out. I had the gain turned up high so that I could take short images, as these were unguided. Overall it was moderately successful, though there is star bloat.
40 x 10 sec for L, R, G and B
Details and higher rez image:
http://www.astrobin.com/161950/
The 2nd image is processed just using the RGB data (i.e. no luminance channel).