Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Gemini (Gem)  ·  Contains:  M 35  ·  NGC 2158  ·  NGC 2168  ·  The star 5Gem
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M35 and NGC2158, John Watson
M35 and NGC2158
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M35 and NGC2158

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M35 and NGC2158, John Watson
M35 and NGC2158
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M35 and NGC2158

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Description

While I was off over Christmas, the only night forecast to be clear was going to have a bright moon in the sky. It would be a good time, I reasoned, to try some open clusters. I've seen some beautiful stars on photos posted on Astrobin, but the stars in my photos always look a little lacklustre.

This is my attempt at M35 and NGC2158 (which is listed as an open cluster, but looks rather globular to me!) The result is nothing like as good as some pictures I've seen but I have learned a lot processing the stars and I now realise a lot of the processing I was doing was de-saturating the colours. I also managed my first star mask that actually seemed to do useful things rather than make the stars look even worse. With the mask in place I was able to saturate the stars and de-noise the background much more effectively.

Overall, I am happy with this image. It doesn't look very spectacular but there's nothing awful on the eyes and it's been great for learning. Another one to have another go at. I still have such a long way to go!

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M35 and NGC2158, John Watson