NGC 559 BG200qCC1100D 29_08_2020DSSaSTa

Open star cluster NGC 559 in Cassiopeia.

 

3,700 light years from Earth and at over 2 billion years old.

It's estimated to contain between 50 - 100 stars within the cluster. It can be seen with a medium to large telescope, big binoculars also if your lucky enough to have very dark skies.

 

I made the mistake of not guiding. As I thought I wouldn't need it as I was only taking 50 second exposures. My polar alignment wasn't the best and my collimation was a little out, noticeable in some elongated stars. It shows up more as I've cropped it quite heavily. The bigger you're reflector the more often it needs collimating I find.

 

 

Below is the boring specs bit for those interested.

Skywatcher 8" quattro on a HEQ5 pro mount.

Skywatcher f4 aplanatic coma corrector.

Canon 1100D with Neewer intervalometer and Astronomik CLS CCD APS-C clip filter (which is meant for astro modded camera's really).

Best 75% of 150 light frames 50 seconds at ISO 800

40 of each calibration frame darks, flats, dark flats & bias.

Stacked using Deep Sky Stacker and all processing done with StarTools.

Done