The large star cluster in Coma Berenices known officially as Melotte 111, at right, with two of the most prominent galaxies in Coma at left: NGC 4559 at top and the Needle Galaxy, NGC 4565, at bottom. Several other fainter galaxies are in the field. I shot this April 2, 2021 on a less-then-ideal hazy night as a test of the new SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor telescope and its matching field flattener/reducer. The high haze added the star glows and accentuated the star colours, so did make for a nice image in the end. And despite the haze, galaxies as faint as 14th magnitude are recorded, such as tiny NGC 4562 below the Needle Galaxy. This is a stack of 10 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 800 with the Canon EOS Ra, autoguided on the Astro-Physics Mach 1 mount with the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone autoguided set to dither 5 pixels between each exposure. The field of view is about 3.3° x 5°.
The constellation of Coma Berenices with the large open cluster Mel 111 at top right. Numerous galaxies show up even at this wide scale and even the globular cluster M53 as the fuzzy star at lower left. This is a stack of 5 x 2-minute exposures with the Rokinon 85mm lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 1600, blended with a single image taken through the Kenko Softon A filter to add the star glows. All with the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. Taken May 24, 2020 between the clouds!
The large star cluster in Coma Berenices known officially as Melotte 111, at right, with two of the most prominent galaxies in Coma at left: NGC 4559 at top and the Needle Galaxy, NGC 4565, at bottom. Several other fainter galaxies are in the field, including NGC 4494 between the Needle Galaxy and the star cluster, but looking very star-like at this image scale. I shot this April 11, 2021 on a fairly clear night as a test of the new SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor telescope and its matching field flattener/reducer. A bit of passing haze added a touch of star glows. There is a version of this same field shot a week earlier in hazy skies with much fuzzier stars. This is a stack of 20 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 800 with the Canon EOS Ra, autoguided on the Astro-Physics Mach 1 mount with the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone autoguided set to dither 5 pixels between each exposure. No dark frames or LENR were applied. The field of view is about 3.3° x 5°.
