M 46 and two planetary nebula

[batema (Mark)]

Messier 46 is an open cluster in the constellation of Puppis. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. There are an estimated 500 stars in the cluster found in the image just above centre.

The planetary nebula (star dying and shedding its outer shell of gas) NGC 2438 appears to lie within the cluster found in the centre of the image with a second planetary nebula found at the bottom centre.

Image consists of 5 hours and 40 minutes of luminance data and 1 hour and 50 minutes of each red, green and blue channels. Taken with my TEC 140 on Astrophysics mount with SBIG STT-8300.

Link to my higher resolution Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/134809...posted-public/

As always comments welcome.

Mark

[croweater (Richard)]

Nice shots Mark. NGC 2438 was my first visual planetary about 25yrs ago. Still remember being highly excited to find it. I'd tried for a couple of others but didn't really know what to look for. This was a bit easier as I could find M46 (though I admit at first I was mixed up with M47) and after a bit of searching there it was. Cheers, Richard

[Tony_ (Tony)]

Nice one Mark.
I've imaged these 2 as well - it's always good to get 2 DSOs in the same field.

The second PN is Minkowski 1-18.

Tony.

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

A lovely field Mark. I have always found this field attractive and interesting with the PN lurking among the cluster.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Cuties! I have to revisit this area one day.

[RickS (Rick)]

Nice catch, Mark!