M29 Open Cluster in Cygnus

No galaxies or nebulae to see here. This is just an open cluster of stars, happily named M29 and sitting up there in the constellation of Cygnus.

 

This open cluster consists of thirty stars, the brightest of which form a "stubby dipper", giving the cluster a boxy appearance. It is about 6,000 light years away and is only 11 light years across but the five brightest stars are all giants giving the cluster the luminosity of 160,000 times that of our sun.

 

Watch out. This cluster is approaching us at 28 km/sec. You'd better duck when it gets here. Wear sunglasses and a high factor sunblock.

 

 

Telescope: Celestron C5 Schmidt Cassegrain OTA with 0.63x flattener/reducer.

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Pro

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C

Filter: ZWO UV/IR filter

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam

Guide via: ZWO OAG

 

Stacked from:

Lights 19 at 180 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Darks 20 at 180 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Flats 20 at 30.0ms, gain 101, temp -10C

Dark Flats 20 at 30.0ms, gain 101, temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor and adjusted in Photoshop CS4.

 

Done