Observation by John Hughes: Diamonds on black velvet

Uploaded by

Mr John William Hughes

Observer

John Hughes

Observed

2020 Apr 19 - 21:00

Uploaded

2020 Apr 28 - 17:51

Objects

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Constellation

Canes Venatici

Field centre

RA: 13^h42^m
Dec: +28°21'
Position angle: -0°12'

Field size

1°42' × 1°16'

Equipment

William Optics Z103 refractor
ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cool
ZWO EFW
SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount

Exposure

Gain 139, Offset 21

Location

North Essex, UK

Target name

Messier 3

Title

Diamonds on black velvet

About this image

Diamonds on black velvet, my globular cluster of the year.

Here is my rendition of Messier 3. Having posted several galaxies so far this year I decided to move on to M3 which is ideally positioned in the constellation Canes Venatici, 40 degrees above the horizon and rising from my location.

The image processing called for a totally different approach in PixInsight compared to galaxies and whilst wanting to catch as much detail as I could in the bright core, I also wanted to aim for a less crunchy and warmer feel for M3 given it contains ‘old’ stars as well. For this undertook two sessions in luminance, the first capturing M3 with 5 minute exposures and the second using 1 minute exposures. I would welcome your thoughts on whether I have achieved that.

Thank you for checking in.

John

Files associated with this observation

M3_LRGB_Border_BAA.jpg (1.6 MB)

Like this image

Jeremy Shears, Neil Morrison, Graham Winstanley, Ray Emery, David Basey, Lyn Smith, Andy Wilson, Dr Paul Leyland, Andrew Dumbleton, Chris Hooker

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