Target: Part IC2602
Camera: QHY8 OSC CCD with WO F2 .8 reducer
Exposure Capture: Maxim DL
Scope: GSO 200mm RC
Mount: G11-G2
Exposure Setting: Gain 5 Offset 117
Exposures: 10 x 600s total 1hr40m taken 17/03/2012 between 8:30pm and 11:30pm
Seeing: Fair to muddly
Guiding: Orion SSAG using PHD with WO 72mm Megrez
Focus: Bahlintov Mask
Stacking: DSS no flats etc
Processing: PS CS3, Maxim DL
(Had some issues with camera banding also seeing wasn't that good as well as the usual LP from burbs, needs lot more data and should be captured with smaller scope such as the 80ED for widefield)
Info: Situated in the Carina
IC 2602 (and Caldwell 102) (also known as the Theta Carinae Cluster or Southern Pleiades) is an open cluster in the constellation Carina. It was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751 from South Africa. The cluster is at a distance of about 479 light-years away from Earth and can be seen with the naked eye. The Southern Pleiades (IC 2602) has an overall apparent magnitude of 1.9, which is 70% fainter than the Taurean Pleiades, and contains about 60 stars. Theta Carinae, the brightest star within the open cluster, is a third-magnitude star with an apparent magnitude of +2.74. All the other stars within the cluster are of the fifth magnitude and fainter. Like its northern counterpart in Taurus, the Southern Pleiades spans a sizeable area of sky, approximately 50 arcminutes, so it is best viewed with large binoculars or telescope with a wide-angle eyepiece. The cluster is thought to have the same age as the open cluster IC 2391, which has a lithium depletion boundary age of 50 million years old.
In addition to the main players, you've managed to retain good star colour for the rest of the field. Very nice Trevor and I think that QHY has a lot to do with it?
I am really struggling with star colour with my 40D which I hope to tackle when I get back home.
Thanks Darren, it was my first night out for quite a while and I had the usual teething problems, alignment, focus, PHD v1.11.3 wouldn't work (kept coming up no camera) so I had to re-install v1.7 which works, and for some reason the QHY8 just doesn't seem to work as well as it has. So I just chose something simple although it is probably a target better suited to the ED80 than the RC.
