Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Two For One - M46 and M47

I got two Messier objects for the price of one while taking this image under the nearly full moon. In the bottom left is M46 (NGC 2437) which is an open cluster in constellation of Puppis. M46 is about 5,500 light-years away and with approximately 500 stars and estimated to be 300 million years old. As a bonus, a planetary nebula NGC 2438 appears to lie within the cluster near its northern edge, but it is a foreground object and unrelated to the cluster. The 4.95 magnitude bright star in the bottom is 140 Pup. (source: wikipedia)

In the top right is M47 (NGC 2422) another open cluster in the constellation Puppis.  It is about 1,600 light-years from Earth with an estimated age of about 78 million years. There are about 50 stars in this cluster. 

Fifty three Messier objects imaged so far: https://sites.google.com/site/messierobjectsed80/.

Wide Field - M46 (lower left) and M47 (top right)

M46 and Planetary Nebula NGC 2438

 M47


M46 and M47
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 1-15-17, 11:45 pm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G GoTo Telescope Mount
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR, Astronomik CLS (48mm)
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 18 x 120 sec (36 min)
ISO: 1600
Temp: -3.8 C (25 F)
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Astrophotography Tools, StarTools

No comments:

Post a Comment