Globular Cluster Caldwell 79 / NGC 3201
06-Mar-2016
It's been cloudy. Very cloudy. I managed to get a short imaging session, so I had to choose a bright target. The globular cluster Caldwell 79 was in the right place at the right time.
It is located at a distance of 16,300 light years from the Sun and has an estimated 254,000 times the mass of the Sun. This cluster is about 10.24 billion years old.
Image:
- 25x 60s Red bin2x2 + 10 flat + 40x dark + 120x bias
- 14x 60s Green bin2x2 + 10 flat + 40x dark + 120x bias
- 36x 60s Blue bin2x2 + 10 flat + 40x dark + 120x bias
Total integration 1 hour 15 minutes.
Hardware:
- Celestron EdgeHD 1100
- SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
- Celestron 0.7x EdgeHD focal reducer
- QSI 683-wsg Camera @ -15°C
- Astronomik Typ 2c RGB filters
- Orion StarShoot Autoguider
- Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
- Starlight Xpress Adaptive Optics
Location:
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
- Average seeing + last quarter moon phase.
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 9
- Captured with AstroArt 6
- Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
- CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
- CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, remove gradient, combine RGB & create luminance, deconvolution.
- Photoshop CC: Noise reduction, combine L+RGB, curves, saturation, unsharp, shadows/highlights