Being a science fiction buff I chose NGC 2301 because of the nickname, Hagrids's Dragon Cluster, which was coined by Stephen James O'Meara in his book, Deep-Sky Companions: Hidden Treasures. I am glad I did as it turned out surprisingly well. It is situated in Monoceros at a distance of 2,450-2,840 light-years away (depending on the source), and is estimated to be 160 million years old. The cluster is made up of approximately 100 stars spanning. It is detached from the background sky due to a number of bright member stars running vertically (source: astronomy).
It is no secret that like colorful stars, maybe vibrance a little too much, but I did very little saturation with this image. The colors really came out like this after stacking. For some reason my camera only saved the jpeg flats (could not use) so vignetting gradients were really bad. To remove them I created a new image and blurred it with dust & scratches. Next, I subtracted it from the original layer and wound up with a flat image. This method works really well with small galaxies and clusters, for large objects and nebulae, I use gradient exterminator (method description: http://kurt-zeppetello.blogspot.com/2017/04/gradient-test-with-m94.html).
Crop
Wide Field
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date: 02-18-18
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
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 51 x 60s
ISO: 1600
Temp: 4 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Gradient Exterminator, Astronomy Tools.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
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