I sometimes think that globular clusters don’t get the love they deserve. Many times, they are just tacked on after a primary target at the end of the night. Or they are barely given any time during bright moons. I gave the most magnificent globular cluster in the northern hemisphere,… Continue Reading... "M13"
M12 is a globular cluster in Ophiuchus. It rose late in the morning as my second target after the Leo Triplet. I recorded almost 13 hours of data on it. M12 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764 and is a decently bright globular at 6.7 magnitude. Binoculars would reveal… Continue Reading... "M12"
The early Ohio winter actually gave me five clear nights this week during a new Moon, can you believe it? I finally got to image a target I’ve been wanting to do for years, and my widefield refractor was the perfect equipment to image it with. Messier 45, also known… Continue Reading... "Pleiades"
Messier 103 is an open star cluster in Cassiopeia. It contains a few hundred stars that are around 10,000 light years away. This image is composed of 413 four-minute exposures, giving almost 28 hours of total exposure. There are 46,441 stars in this image. There is also some interstellar dust… Continue Reading... "M103"
Been a while, hasn’t it? My wide-field setup consisting of an EQM-35 and Evostar 72ED has been nothing but trouble. While I am very pleased with the telescope itself, which seems quite well corrected for being so cheap, the mount has been a nightmare. I finally dismantled the entire thing,… Continue Reading... "The Double Cluster"
The Summer Beehive Cluster, IC 4665, is a coarse open star cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus that was discovered in 1745. It only started forming around 40 million years ago. It lies about 1,400 light years from us and is approaching us at about 12 km/s. This is only about… Continue Reading... "Summer Beehive Cluster"
The Bubble nebula is a real favorite of mine, and I was really unhappy with the way I did it last year. With more patience, as well as a steadier hand in PixInsight, I am very pleased with the results this year. I decided to frame it to include its… Continue Reading... "The Bubble, with a little Salt and Pepper"
It was supposed to be cloudy and rainy all week, but the sky detector test determined that was a lie. Last night was quite beautiful. The moon is starting to rear its bright head, so I needed something quick and easy. M13 is starting to rise behind my big tree,… Continue Reading... "The Hercules Glob"
M5 is a pretty large globular cluster near the equator that contains from 100,000 to 500,000 stars. It was a second sequence in my recent imaging project. I got about seven hours of data on it. Continue Reading... "M5"
Rain is scheduled for the next week, but I got one clear night last night beforehand. There wasn’t too much to pick from, so I found some star clusters that are far away from the galactic plane. These don’t tend to need so much data to turn out well. In… Continue Reading... "A tale of two clusters"
