The Pleiades Star Cluster - M45 First Light with New Orion 8" f/4 Astrograph

Uploaded 2/18/10

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 With its larger 1.5 degree field of view, the new instrument saw its first use this week, and for the first time I can frame this entire object in one shot. Guiding was done with a piggyback Stellarvue SV80s, another astrograph and a 2x Televue barlow.

Object Description:

One of the closest star clusters to Earth, wrapped in a blue haze of filamentary reflection nebulosity O and B type stars the primary illuminators. The nebula itself is NGC1432, which spans the entire field with a blue nebulosity. There are at least a dozen faint galaxies in this image, the most prominent in the lower right corner, UGC2838 - an 18th magnitude spindle 1.5 arcminutes in size.

Optics: 8" f/4 Newtonian Astrograph w/Baader MPCC Coma Corrector Platform: Astrophysics AP1200 Camera: Hutech Modified Canon XTi @ ISO800 Exposure: 12 x 5m Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing 4/10, Transparency 9/10 Outside Temperature: 35F Processing Tools: Photoshop CS2, Images Plus 3.82 HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS