Overshadowed by it's more famous neighbour 47 Tuc, NGC 362 is a young Globular cluster, located in the constellation Tucana in the Southern Hemisphere, slightly north of the Small Magellanic Cloud.
Pictured also is the blueish NGC 346, and it's many Ha rich nebulous companions, which resemble cherry blossoms in spring.
NGC 346 is the brightest star-forming region in the neighbouring Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy, some 210 000 light-years away from Earth.
This was also testing the latest round of tilt and eccentricity corrections done to the Tak TOA130 ota & focuser combined with the TOA/FS reducer.
Seems all of my ASV colleague Stefan Buda's hard work has paid off, yielding round stars across the frame at last!
Large Image Here
Taken using Chroma 5nm Ha, 3nmO3, Lum & RGB filters during Covid iso from my light polluted backyard in Suburban Melbourne, Australia.
Processed in AstroPixel Processor, PS CC2020 , with Starnet ++, Nik & Topaz plugins.
PS: Just for fun and art's sake,
a starless version of the NB masters is included.