Omega Centauri Region

Globular Cluster in Centaurus

Uploaded 6/19/05

Select an image size for a larger view: 800 x 600 1200 x 800 1600 x 1200

 This spectacular object is always low on the horizon for us northern hemisphere observers, however with some digital darkroom techniques (detailed below), we can present a very attractive shot of this celestial wonder. This field is 6.5 degrees wide, and shows a colorful star filled region around the globular. Omega is 3.9th magnitude, and spans a huge 1 degree across. The brightest stars are around 11th magnitude, with most being around 14.5th. At -47.5 declination, it is only 8.5 degrees above my horizon from Northern Arizona. The core in this wide field rendition appears slightly greenish because the blue and orange supergiants will meld to their average color at a lower resolution, hence green. Please look at the largest image if you can, it has tremendous detail.

Processing:

Two images as seen below were taken spaced about 15 minutes apart along the southern horizon between the ponderosa pines. Since both images had trees but in different locations, the pair was first aligned in PixInsight, then layered in Photoshop. By combining combinations of these images in pairs with both lighten and darken, the final image was obtained, with no trees. The image was then flattened in Pix to remove the typical 15 percent vignette of the schmidt, and the stars and background were color corrected for a neutral tint via histogram color equalization.

+

Instrument: 8" f/1.5 Celestron Schmidt Camera Platform: Homemade GEM Film: Kodak Supra 400 CCD Autoguider: ST4 Exposure: 2x8mins Filters: NONE Location: Happy Jack, Arizona Elevation: 6800 ft. Sky: Seeing 8/10, Transparency 8/10 Outside Temperature: 40 F Processing: Photoshop, PixInsight Pro. HOME SCHMIDT GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS 
 

 
 


FastCounter by bCentral