M7 Open Cluster in Scorpius
with 8" f/3.9 Astrograph in Happy Jack
Uploaded 7/16/16

 
This
            is an amazing field, very close to the very center of our Galaxy.
            The ultra rich star field, and other tiny deep sky objects in
            the same field make for a very tempting target during the summer.
            Dust obscuration is high in this part of the sky, and nearly
            all stars are both dimmed and color shifted into the yellow range.
            For this image, I removed most of the dark brown dust obscuration
            in processing to reveal the beautiful blue sapphires laying on
            a velvet background of countless distant suns. Two images are
            provided here, the first is the full image with no annotations,
            and the second Ive labeled the globular cluster on the right,
            and three of the blue/red planetary nebulas that dot the field.
            See also a nice well defined dark nebula to the clusters upper
            left.

            
Select an image size for a larger view:

1400 x 1290



            
Select an image size for a larger view:

1400 x 1290

Instrument:  8" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph Newtonian with Baader MPCC
Mount:  Home made GEM with Byers Starmaster Drive
Camera:  Canon XTi DSLR modified by Hutech for full spectrum
Guider: Meade DSI Pro  w/60mm piggyback refractor
Exposure:  15mins total
Location:  Happy Jack, Arizona, Elevation:  6800 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FWHM = 1 arcsec , Transparency 9/10
Outside Temperature:  55 F
Image Processing Tools: 
Maxim DL6:  Calibration, aligning, stacking
PixInsight:  Curves, Deconvolution
Photoshop CS2:  Curves, Color Correction, Gradient removal (Grad Xterminator), Cleanup

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