We’re now well into some decent long dark evenings 🙂
This month’s object is rarely imaged it seems – I am going to look at the open cluster Stock 2 in Perseus this month.
This is a beautiful, colourful open star cluster lying just to the north west of the Perseus Double Cluster – and THAT’S the reason that Stock 2 rarely gets any air-time – it has a far more glamorous imaging neighbour just down the road! But to not have a go at imaging Stock 2 is to miss a wonderful imaging opportunity, an opportunity of putting together a mosaic that includes both the Stock 2 AND the Double Cluster! I have all the frames for this one taken and I am waiting for Noel Carboni to put the whole thing together for me – I think it will make a wonderful image.
Still – back to Stock 2 – this is quite a large open cluster and for once the large field of view of the Sky 90/M25C is needed – that it 3.33 x 2.22 degrees covers the region nicely. As this is an open cluster it’s the usual 3-5 minute subs and 80 – 100 of them for a low noise final image.
If you can pull yourself away from the Double Cluster – Stock 2 is certainly worth a look, and it provides much more interesting colour than the Double Cluster as well!
Until November – clear, dark skies to you all 🙂
