M46

Puppis - Open Cluster - Magnitude 6.1

M46 - Open Cluster in Puppis

This has to be one of my favorite open clusters, not so much for the cluster itself, which is fine as far as clusters go, but rather for the jewel lying in the midst of the cluster. You might detect a distinct red and green ring in between some of the stars near the middle of the cluster. This is a planetary nebula known as NGC 2438. The cluster is easily visible with any optical aid, regardless of the amount of light pollution in which you may be cursed. In fact, the cluster is an easy naked eye object in dark skies. As for the planetary nebula, it is quite visible in most scopes, though dark skies are quite important to give the necessary contrast to allow NGC2438 to stand out from the neighboring stars. This combination of deep sky object types makes this Messier object a fine sight indeed!

Location: The Ballauer Observatory near Azle, Texas
Date: February 13, 2004
Temperature: 28 degrees F
Seeing: 7/10 (1.4 FWHM)
Transparency: 5/10
Scope/mount: Takahaski FSQ-106 @ f/5 and Celestron CGE mount
Camera: SBIG ST-10XME, self-guided
Exposure Info: RGB image - 10:10:10 minutes
Processing Info: Dark frame calibration, de-blooming, alignment, and Sigma combine of each channel in MaxIm 3.0. Digital-development in Images Plus. Color assembly in MaxIm. Curves, color balance, gradient removal and cropping in Photoshop CS.

Extra information: First light with the ST-10XME and with the new New-Astro Deblooming plug-in. Special thanks to Dr. Fred Koch for the use of the ST-10xme.