Home » Image of the Week » Image of the Week, June 24, 2016
Image of the Week

Image of the Week, June 24, 2016

Neil Creek m7The Ptolemy Cluster, by Neil Creek

Messier 7, the Ptolemy Cluster, is a loose cluster of young, blue, 200 million year old stars that has been known since antiquity and was first described in history by the philosopher and scientist Ptolemy. Comprising of about 80 stars at a distance of nearly 1000 light years, it is small at 25 light years across against the much more distant and dense core of the Milky Way galaxy.

I took this photo as a test of my first night using autoguiding to improve the accuracy of my telescope mount to track the stars as I photograph them. This meant I was able to eliminate small errors from the mount drive and small movements of the telescope due to wind, sag, and so on. This will help me to produce sharper, clearer photos in the future!

Taken on the night of the first quarter moon, 2C ambient temperature.

Image details

Camera: Canon 5d MkIII
Telescope: 200mm f4 Newtonian reflector

30 x 2min exposures – 1 hour total
ISO 1600
Dark, flat, and bias calibration frames applied
Processed with Pixinsight and Lightroom

About the photographer

Neil Creek
Location: Australia
Website, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, 500px

Celestron

Want in on the action? Submit your image today!

PreviousNext

Add Comment

Click here to post a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

From PhotographingSpace.com:

Astrophotography Photoshop Actions!

Make your Milky Way POP and finish off your photos like a pro with our Photoshop Action Packs optimized specifically for astrophotography!