Messier 48

There is nothing interesting about the M48 open cluster, I imaged it as a test of the optics at minimum f – which it kinda failed projecting some ugly halos around almost all the stars. It is a 5.8^m DSO in Hydra [wiki]. As a curiosity, this is one of the somewhat debated Messier objects, as there is no notable object at the position marked by Messier. This cluster, in present day also known as NGC 2545, is 5 degrees away from M48’s “original” position. In my picture, the bright star opposite to the cluster is C Hya, accompanied by 1 and 2 Hya and the orange HIP 41316.

If one knows exactly what to look for, four little galaxies are also there, buried beyond recognition in the noise of this frame.

Light: 17×1 min, ISO 1600, Canon 1100D mod, Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM at f/2.8, HEQ5, Dângău Mare, 2017-03-31. Plate solving by astrometry.net. I also used an Aladin view to look for the galaxies.

raw sample

stack: showing all the errors out there, flat, coma, aberration etc etc etc

flatted

stage

my star suppresser’s output

further into processing

platesolved

looking for the galaxies

looking for the NGC galaxies

inset: aladin view

zoom in: there is something there, but it’s more noise than data

galaxies on the raw

Aladin inset

Messier 48 – final picture