Messier 3 – M3
Messier 3 – M3
M3 is a globular cluster that was the first object discovered by Charles Messier. It’s about 20 degrees south of the Ursa Major tail and is pretty bright cluster. If Messier found it, it’s probably pretty cool as he got about 110+ of the best galaxies and clusters to his credit… mostly galaxies and clusters. This was shot with luminance, RGB filters in 30 second increments in monochrome.
There are about half a million stars in there… and with the naked eye just looks like one star.
Equipment
Telescope: Meade 6000 series 70mm Quadruplet @ f/5
Main Camera: ZWO ASI 1600mm-pro Monochrome
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6r-Pro
Guide Scope: William Optics 50mm Uniguide
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 290mm-mini
Computer: ASIair PRO
Location
Location: Pendleton, Oregon
Bortle: 4
Long & Lat: 45.67N, 118.79 W
Shoot Parameters
Red Filter: 13×30″
Green Filter: 23×30″
Blue Filter: 19×30″
Light Filter: 15×30″
Calibration Bias: 20
Calibration Dark: 20
Calibration Flat: 20
Integration Time: ~35 minutes total
Gain: 139 (unity)
Cooling: -20
Processing Software: Photoshop CC, Astro Pixel Processor, ASIair PRO Planning
