AstroBin - M35 on Jan 18, 2013 (smigol)

M35 on Jan 18, 2013

Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smigol/8408009160/in/photostream/lightbox/

Contains: ,

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Stellarvue SV4

Imaging cameras: Pentax K10D

Mounts: Losmandy G11 Gemini II

Guiding telescopes or lenses: Stellarvue SV 70 ED

Guiding cameras: Orion SSAG

Software: PixInsight, Maxim DL, Adobe Lightroom 3, Stark Labs DSLR Shutter

Filters: IDAS LPS-P2

Accessories: Stellarvue SSF6

Resolution: 3872x2604

Dates: Jan. 18, 2013

Locations: Menlo Park

Frames: 14x600"

Integration: 2.3 hours

Avg. Moon age: 6.45 days

Avg. Moon phase: 40.14%

RA center: 06:08:36.170

DEC center: +24:15:29.987

Pixel scale: 1.91 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 91.54 degrees

Field width: 2.05 degrees

Field height: 1.38 degrees

M35 as seen from the backyard on January 18, 2013. Taken while I was waiting for another target to rise.

The weather was iffy - there was a high haze initially and then it cleared nicely just before the target reached the meridian.

This is from a stack of 14 frames each 600 seconds at 400 ISO. This gives a total integration of 2 hours and 20 minutes.
As usual, the Stellarvue SV4 was used with the SSF6 flattener and an IDAS LPR V2 filter.

M35 has a special place for me regarding astrophotos. One of my first efforts with taking pictures of the night sky was with an old point and shoot, integrating 16 second exposures in photoshop. They were cruddy pictures with no real star color at all.

Guided and Calibrated using Maxim using 21 darks, 64 flats, 256 bias.
Stacked and debayered with DSS
Processed with Pix Insight

Here is the platesolve:
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
-0.000014276371 +0.000530632869 -0.663254360772
-0.000530623314 -0.000014228267 +1.045825851420
+0.000000000000 +0.000000000000 +1.000000000000
Resolution ........ 1.911 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -88.462 deg
Focal ............. 655.19 mm
Pixel size ........ 6.07 um
Field of view ..... 2d 3' 19.2" x 1d 22' 56.1"
Image center ...... RA: 06 08 36.268 Dec: +24 15 26.88
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 06 05 40.236 Dec: +25 18 04.86
top-right ...... RA: 06 05 28.623 Dec: +23 14 48.75
bottom-left .... RA: 06 11 46.914 Dec: +25 15 50.40
bottom-right ... RA: 06 11 29.429 Dec: +23 12 36.45