M38 the Starfish Cluster

On the 2nd of January I took a few minutes to capture this colourful open cluster. It is M38, the Starfish Cluster in the constellation of Auriga.

 

It is about 3500 light years away and 25 light years across. The cluster's brightest stars form a pattern resembling the Greek letter Pi. (If you squint and tilt your head to the right there is a wide strip of stars representing the top of Pi, a bright fine line of stars which would be the 'left leg' of Pi and a fairly indeterminate linear group forming the 'right leg')

 

The lines can also be interpreted as looking like a starfish (apparently), hence the name for this cluster of stars.

 

 

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Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C

Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam

Guide via: ZWO OAG

 

Stacked from:

Lights 10 at 60 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Darks 30 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Dark Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101 temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.

Processed in PixInsight

Captions added in Photoshop CS4

 

 

Done