M25 in Sagittarius

[Dave882 (David)]

Well for something a bit different, here's my take on M25 - a gorgeous open cluster in Sagittarius. A lovely highlight of colour and light nestled within an immense star field close to our own galactic centre.

I think this is my first time tackling a star cluster with my c14 Hyperstar setup. Fumbling around a bit with the processing, but ended up just doing it all in APP and then some histogramtransform, noise reduction and BlurEx (increase halos) in PI. Pleasantly surprised how it came out tbh but would love any tips/hints to improve - especially if you think the 'halos' are appropriate.

Heads-up - the 200kb thumbnail looks atrocious...

Bigger version's worth the view!

120x60sec, Bin1, Gain0
C14 Hyperstar f1.9
Eq8 pro
ASI2600mc (no filter - no moon)
Guiding with guide scope & asi290mm
ASIAIR pro
APP & PI

Cheers guys

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

That's a beauty Dave, so many sparkling stars, I think the "halos" look fine, don't look any different to what I was expecting actually...... makes me want to image a cluster now ...we don't do enough of them huh? ...maybe I use the FSQ again..? been a while....

Mike

[Dave882 (David)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

That's a beauty Dave, so many sparkling stars, I think the "halos" look fine, don't look any different to what I was expecting actually...... makes me want to image a cluster now ...we don't do enough of them huh? ...maybe I use the FSQ again..? been a while....

Mike

Cheers Mike thanks for the feedback. It could be a function of shooting broadband in a B7 location, stars just looks flat and lifeless so yeah just wanted to be careful I wasn't going too far.

Yeah it's nice to hit something a bit different. Tbh, the only reason why I was in that mindset was my neighbour got one of those 'purchase/register a star' things after his brother passed away and I did a stargazing session with him so he could find it and thought it'd be nice to give him a photo keepsake. So after doing that earlier in the night I was in the mood for for it!

[petershah (Peter Shah)]

Like a jewellery box....beautiful star colour

[Startrek (Martin)]

Dave,
Lovely image as always, Star colours are excellent
Not many open clusters presented on this forum , hats off

Cheers
Martin

[MortonH]

The bigger version is gorgeous!

[Dave882 (David)]

Thanks Morton, Martin, Peter I appreciate your comments!
I've never really put any serious time into imaging clusters before so it's been a learning process and I'm hoping I can use that experience for some of my other images as well. In the meantime, there's a few more that I've been imaging over the last couple of nights. I didn't think I'd enjoy simple 'ol stars so much!

[Stephane]

This is such a beautiful cluster with those blues in the foreground. The stars look natural and nicely processed. You've also made me want to image a cluster now!