Double Cluster

This is a 72 minute exposure of the double cluster. This cluster is 7502 light years away, and is a star cluster that is visible with the naked eye at a dark sky. This cluster is in the center of the milky way's spiral lane, and the field of view is full of stars. The double cluster is roughly 12.8 million years old, so it is relatively young. Many of the bright stars are hot blue type stars, which appear blue when viewing them through a telescope. 
Picture
Final Photo of NGC 869 and NGC 884
Picture
Double Cluster Labelled
Details of How the shot was Taken
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Gear:
  • Olympus OMD EM-5 Micro 4/3 camera 
  • Skywatcher Star Adventurer (Unguided)
  • Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 lens
  • Home made dew heater
    • Made with nichrome wire wrapped in duct tape, which is powdered by a lipo battery 
​Acquisition & Environment:
  • 72x1 minute exposures (1.2 hours)
  • 400 iso @ 150mm (300 equivalent) F2.8
  • 100 Flat Frames
  • 62 Dark Frames
  • 100 Bias Frames
  • Taken: November 14, 2018
Processing:
  • Images processed in DeepSkyStacker
    • 2x Drizzle Stack
    • Brought Saturation to 17 and match all rgb levels
  • Photoshop Adjustments:
    • Cropped to remove stacking errors
    • Adjust Levels to bring Histogram to the front and bring out more nebulosity
    • Used RC-Astro's Gradient xterminator to remove the gradient the flats couldn't fix
    • Adjust Colour balance to adjust background colour to be neutral
    • Used Deep Sky Colours HLVG tool to remove any unnecessary greens in the photo
    • Used Astronomy tools make stars smaller and sharper
      • Also Ran a tool to decrease deep space noise
    • Increased the Saturation and Shadows 
    • Increased sharpness from inaccurate focusing 
    • Exported into jpeg
Picture
The Raw Image From the Camera