M13 The Great Cluster in Hercules
May 4th, 2009
The weather finally gave me a break last night and allowed me to get out and do some imaging. Unfortunately I had to wait until the moon had gone done before trying anything which meant a very late night. Never mind though, the result was worth the time spent.
M13, the great cluster in Hercules, along with faint galaxy NGC6207 on the left and the trail of a passing satellite which I should probably remove. There is also an even fainter galaxy which I have not been able to identify as yet.
This image is composed of :
- 20 x 1.5 minute light frames
- 20 x 1.5 minute dark frames
- 20 light frames using the home made light box.
- 20 dark bias frames.
Taken with :
- Canon EOS 1000D unmodified at prime focus
- Orion Options 250mm F4.8 Reflector
- Skywatcher Light Pollution filter
- Vixen Sphinx SX Mount
- 3 cups of tea.
I’m pretty happy with the result, my post processing skills are improving nicely and being able to pull the detail of the spiral arm of NGC6207 out whilst not completely ruining the dark level of the image is something I’m happy about. I still need to spend time learning how to better remove unwanted noise form the image, though I think I will ask for some assistance from the more experienced imagers at BAS for that.
