I was not planning on imaging the Double Cluster but M34, my target, was still behind some trees some I had a little time. I imaged this almost two years ago but I modified my equipment since then so I decided to revisit it. The Double Cluster (NGC 869 and NGC 884, often designated h Persei and χ Persei, respectively or Caldwell 14) are close together in the constellation Perseus and lie at a distance of 7500 light years. They are very close to the Heart Nebula (last target) and the Soul Nebula.
This was also the first time I ever used flats in my processing. I took them the following day using a method described by Trevor Jones from Astrobackyard.com. It definitely made a difference. The flats removed some of the vignetting but not all and seemed to have removed some of the smaller stars so I think I need to experiment with taking these. It still gave me good results. For more discussion and further comparison images, go to the following link:
http://kurt-zeppetello.blogspot.com/2017/10/double-cluster-revisited.html.
Comments