NGC 2516

NGC 2516

On saturday evening the 8th of November 2017 I captured this open cluster.

NGC 2516 is a open cluster in the constellation Carina. It was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751-52.
It is also known as the Southern Beehive or Sprinter cluster.


This was not my intended target but a "Plan B".
Plan A was to try again for NGC 104. Sadly this dufus astronomer did not check one ore two test subs properly and missed the fact that something is not aligning straight and the right half of the image is distorted, like really bad coma.

So in order to salvage something from the situation without having to resort to a break down of the equipment to check all the fittings between camera and scope I opted to image a cluster and frame it over to the left of the sensor.
Then in processing I could cut the offending bits out.

So there is something to show after all, rather than a failed night we got some lemonade out of this one!

Particulars of the photo shoot as follows:

Skywatcher 102 on a alt/az goto mount.
Canon 1200D without astro mods.
Meade Nebular filter.
ISO 3200
50 X 25 second exposures.
Dark frames.
Flat frames.
Stacked in Deep sky stacker.
Processed mostly in PS with a touch up in Star tools.

First, the sky chart courtesy of Stellerium. Then the image of NGC 2516 and lastly the annotated version, courtesy of Astrometry.net

So while the cloud gods gave me some clear sky they gave my equipment a kick before I got started, none the less, here is the lemonade!

Hope you enjoyed plan B, any comments(good or bad) are welcomed.

M42 Short exposure alt/az.

Messier 42 or NGC 1976.

This image of the Great Orion Nebula was taken on Saturday evening the 29th September 2017.

It has taken me a while to post as processing was a real pain. You can process this one so many ways that finding the right balance is tough!
I am sure I will still abuse this data for some time, hoping to squeeze out a few more drops and improve on the star quality and colours. Keeping the core tamed and getting the finer outlaying detail is a fine balancing act.
Then there is noise,light pollution and gradients to contend with.

At any rate I have settled on this image to share here with you the reader.
The details of my little photo-shoot on the night are as follows:

Skywatcher 102 F5 mounted on a alt/az goto.
Canon 1200D DSLR with no modifications.
Meade Nebular filter.
ISO 1600
60 X 30 second light frames.
60 X 30 second dark frames.
60 X light frames in AV mode.
All stacked in DeepSky Stacker and processed with both Star tools and Photoshop.

With the processing on this image I tried to use PS more extensively and get to grips with processing DSO with it.
PS and Star tools work well together and the more I learn about PS the more I like it, used in combination they will produce better images together as my skills with each improves.

For those of you not too familiar with the night skies here is a image taken from the planetarium freeware, Stellerium.
It shows where the constellation of Orion is and the red arrow points to M42 in the small green block.
For those in the Northern hemisphere you may notice that Orion appears "upside down" from your perspective. This is the way we see it in the Southern hemisphere.

And here is my rendition of this fine nebula.

Many thanks for reading and looking.

Comments or criticisms are always welcomed. And many thanks to those that have left comments in the past, always much appreciated.

Clear skies friends!