Always a pleasure to see and all too often overlooked—the many open star clusters. Here is an object from the Messier catalog that I was still missing.
In this case, I photographed the star cluster before the main object of the evening was high enough above the horizon.
Session Analysis
It was still very early, and it was still quite warm. During the session, the temperature dropped from 9.3°C to 6.5°C. I had set the automatic re-focusing to a delta of 1°C. The guiding was really not great, but for the “in-between” star cluster that was still missing from my collection, it was okay.
Full resolution on Astrobin:
Session Details:
| Telescope | Vixen VC200L – VISAC |
| Focal Length | 1800mm |
| Erecting Lense | – |
| Camera | Canon EOS R(a) |
| Filter | Bayer Matrix RGGB |
| Mount | Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro, Belt and Hypertuned |
| Guiding Equipment | Pegasus Astro Indigo OAG |
| Guiding Camera | ToupTek GPM462M |
| Photography Date | 03/04/2025 |
| Exposure-Time Lights | 30x180s |
| Correction frames | FLATS, BIASES, DARKS |
| Sensitivity | ISO 1600 |
| Processing Date | 03/21/2025 |
| Software Stack | Stellarmate OS, PixInsight, Affinity Photo |
| Capture Place | Koblenz, Germany |