M41 on a Clear Moon-Filled Night

I had the most productive imaging session in a long time last night even though the moon was at 84%.  The weather has been so bad lately I did not care about the moon.  It was finally clear so I decided to shoot some star clusters which are not as affected by moon glow.  In addition, used my 48mm (2") Astronomik CLS filter which seems to have some affect with reducing moon glow.

I did start off the evening doing a wide field image of the Pleiades Cluster and the California Nebula using a Canon EF 50mm STM lens prior to the moon making its appearance.  Stay tuned for that image.  I then moved on to M41 and then decided to image M46 and M47 (stay tuned) since it was still clear and I was happy how the M41 sub-frames came out.

Messier 41 (M41 or NGC 2287) is a bright open star cluster located in Canis Major constellation and lies near Sirius at an approximate distance of 2,300 light years from Earth.  M41 contains about 100 stars, including red giants and white dwarfs (source: Messier Objects).

This is my 51st Messier Object I have imaged. (https://sites.google.com/site/messierobjectsed80/)

Closeup

Wide Field

M41 (NGC 2287)
Location: Happy Frog Observatory, Monroe, CT
Date/Time: 1-15-17, 10:45 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: 22 x 120 sec (44 min)
ISO: 1600
Temp: 25 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Lightroom, Astrophotography Tools, StarTools