Telescope: Light Switch 8 @ f/6.2 (Optec 0.62x focal reducer), altaz mode

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Canon 600D, interval timer

Filter: GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: None

Exposure: 22x10sec, ISO 1600, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.5

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

M52 is a relatively bright open cluster just to the west of Cassiopeia. Visually, M52 appears as a fine patch of stardust in small telescopes while larger telescopes show a broad expanse of fainter stars. The faint, rich field to the right of M52 is the open cluster Czernik 43.

M52 is currently high in the northeast after sunset. 

Telescope: Light Switch 8 @ f/6.2 (Optec 0.62x focal reducer), altaz mode

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Canon 600D, interval timer

Filter: GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: None

Exposure: 39x10sec, ISO 1600, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.6

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

NGC 457 is one of my favorite open clusters in just about any size telescope. It makes a fine target for binoculars and small telescopes and becomes a very rich field in larger scopes. The two bright distinctive foreground stars makes it fairly easy to locate. In a small telescope it is worth taking some time with this field. At first your eye may only see the two bright foreground stars and a few of the brighter stars of the cluster. As your eyes relax you may start to see some of the fainter background stars and the cluster will begin to blossom into a beautiful field of stardust.

NGC457 is currently well placed high in the northeast after sunset.

Telescope: Light Switch 8 @ f/6.2 (Optec 0.62x focal reducer), altaz mode

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Canon 600D, interval timer

Filter: GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: None

Exposure: 38x10sec, ISO 1600, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.6

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

M2 is a big, beautiful globular cluster that is well placed in the eastern sky in late summer and early fall. It is an easy target for a small telescope. Under dark skies it can even be glimpsed without a telescope or even binoculars. M2 is about 37,500 light years away and lies beyond the galactic center. Like most globular clusters M2 is an ancient relic of the early universe with an estimated age of about 13 billion years.

M2 is currently in high the southwest at sunset.

Telescope: Light Switch 8 @ f/6.2 (Optec 0.62x focal reducer), altaz mode

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Canon 600D, interval timer

Filter: GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: None

Exposure: 40x10sec, ISO 1600, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.6

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

M15, a bright, condensed globular cluster in a relatively lonely stretch of sky in Pegasus. It is one of the oldest known globular clusters with an estimated age of 13.2 billion years and the first globular cluster found to have a planetary nebula (Pease 1), one of only four planetary nebula associated with a globular cluster. M15 is also one of the most condensed globular cluster and at some point in the distant past it experienced a core collapse that may have heralded the formation of a black hole in its nucleus. This is supported by the fact the M15 is an x-ray source.

M15 is currently in high the south at sunset.

Telescope: Light Switch 8 @ f/6.2 (Optec 0.62x focal reducer), altaz mode

Camera: Full Spectrum Modified Canon 600D, interval timer

Filter: GSO IR Blocking Filter

Guide scope: None

Exposure: 31x10sec, ISO 1600, saved as RAW

Darks: Internal (Long Exposure Noise Reduction On)

Flats: 32×1/10sec, Tee shirt flats taken at dusk

Average Light Pollution: Red zone, Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.4

Stacking: Mean with a 1-sigma clip.

White Balance: Nebulosity Automatic

Software: Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity, Photoshop

Globular clusters are relics of the ancient universe and M13 is no exception with an estimated age of 12 billion years. Their great age is an indication of their unusual stability. One consequence of this stability is that any heavy elements that their stars have made remains buried in their cores and the cluster itself has little, if any, interstellar dust. M13 is one of the few globular clusters with a dust-like feature that can be seen as a dark lane extending to the upper left of the core. It is possible that this dust lane is an independent object that just happens to be in front of the cluster.

M13 is currently in the northwest at sunset.