The open cluster Messier 46 (M46, NGC 2437) and the planetary nebula NGC 2438 in the constellation
Puppis on February 24 / 25, 2014. Messier 46 is about 5,500 light years from earth. The planetary nebula NGC 2438 appears to be unrelated to the open cluster
since it is only 3000 light years from earth. Messier 46 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771, NGC 2438 by William Herschel in 1786
(source: Wikipedia).
Seventeen exposures of approximately 3 minutes at ISO 800 were added for this shot with the DeepSkyStacker software
and the final image processing was done in Photoshop. The total exposure time is 55 minutes. Unfortunately, Messier 46 and NGC 2438 were rather low
in the sky and the air was not very steady.
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Equipment: Canon EOS 450Da camera, TeleVue ParaCorr Type II coma corrector, 16" f/4.5
dobsonian telescope "Ninja" riding on a dual-axis Tom Osypowski equatorial platform,
Lacerta MGEN autoguider, Lacerta off axis system (field of view comparison:
image of the moon with the same equipment).
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