M52 and the "Bubble Nebula"

CLICK HERE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION - (2400x1554)

Scope: Megrez II 80 mm APO at f/6.9; Location: Laguna Mountains, CA;  12 September, 2009; Camera: Canon XT 350D (Baader ACF modified)

Exposure: 17 x 6 min  (unfiltered)   ISO 800 , 7 Darks, no Flats 

Processing: Images were captured with DSLR Focus  and saved as RAW file format. Exposures were decoded and dark corrected in IRIS. Exposures were aligned and stacked in IRIS with Sigma Median.  Dark point equalization and rough color balance  were done in IRIS.  Gamma and saturation adjustments were also done in IRIS.  Stretch and crop adjustments were done in Photoshop.  Star reduction was done with Carboni's Astronomy Tools. Background noise reduction was performed by PixInsight LE  (SGBNR).  Final stretching and touch up was done in PhotoShop.     Final Image size is approximately 3465x2244 - re-sampled to 2400x1554.

North is up in this image.  This image is guided.  M52 is an open cluster (upper left); NGC 7635 -is also known as the Bubble Nebula due to its distinctive shape (lower right). Also visible on the right edge is the emission nebula NGC 7538. M52 is about 5,000 light years distant from Earth.    The Horizontal FOV is about 130 min.

Image Center is approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 23h 23m 22s Dec: +61°20'01" 

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