Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2017-Oct-28
RGB 38x150s, 4hr 45min
SGB, MaximDL, Corel
Imaging: CFF132, STF-8300M, GM1000
Guider:A80Mf, GSO2X Barlow, LodeStar X2, 610nm Flt
Messier 34 is an open cluster in the constellation Perseus.
This image was done to help determine an optimal RGB exposure times for the CFF 132 refractor and STF-8300M camera. The idea is to take the shortest image possible to prevent saturation while at the same time making sure the exposure is long enough to lift the desired data out of the low level noise and light pollution.
The raw frames on this version are 150 seconds each (2min 30sec). Later on I learned that two minute exposures seemed to work better since they avoided additional saturation without introducing unreasonable amounts of noise.