M22 and M25 in Sagittarius

CCD vs Film? Lots of time vs no patience? Alright, this is your place to discuss all the astrophotography what's and what's not. You can discuss about techniques, accessories, cameras, whatever....just make sure you also post some nice photos here too!
Post Reply
celeron787
Posts: 113
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2020 2:30 pm

M22 and M25 in Sagittarius

Post by celeron787 »

A widefield shot around the head of the Sagittarius teapot. I managed to get only 14x15sec subs before it was blocked by a building, but I'm still pretty amazed by the amount of light the Samyang 135mm F2 captures. Very happy to see parts of the galactic core come out in post-processing, something that StarTools managed to do but I can't replicate it in Photoshop.

Still quite a noisy image due to the short integration time. But you can already see a small hint of H-alpha from IC1284 and reflection nebulae NGC 6589/6590 right beside M24 at the bottom right. I would love to attempt this area again with more integration time.

View plate-solved version here: http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/4408057

M22 (a globular cluster) and M25 (an open cluster) are located near the Milky Way bulge, the tightly packed group of stars near the galactic centre.

M22 is one of the nearest globulars to the solar system. Visible to the naked eye in good conditions, the cluster lies only 2.5 degrees to the northeast of Kaus Borealis, the star that marks the top of the Teapot in Sagittarius. The cluster contains at least 83,000 stars.

M25 lies 6.5 degrees north and a little east of Kaus Borealis. The cluster contains about 601 stars. The cluster appears brighter and larger than the nearby M23 and is positioned only 3.5 degrees to the west of the much larger M24, the Sagittarius Star Cloud.

Sony A6000
Samyang 135mm F2.0
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
Tripod

Bortle 8
ISO400
Light frames - 14 x 15secs
Dark Frames - 30 x 15secs
Flat Frames - 33
Bias Frames - 50

Deep Sky Stacker
StarTools - 50% Bin, Autodev, Crop, Wipe, Life, Color, Defringe filter

Image
Post Reply