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Auriga the charioteer, the brightest star on the right is Capella, I was not able to fit the top most star Delta Aurigae into the 50mm's field of view. I have not observed Auriga much in the past, in fact the first time I've seen open clusters M36, M37, and M38 was when I looked at the RAW files for this image in the monitor.
I'm very new to Astro-imaging and I'm starting to see it's a bit different to visual observing. You don't get the instant emotion when you see a celestial object for the fist time, in real time with your eyes against the eyepiece. When I'm observing visually my brain process what my eyes see just as when I look at an image on the monitor, but we have other senses. When I see something for the first time I'm taking in the image, but also the feel and smell of the air at the time, the cool breeze, the mosquitoes queuing to feed on me.The satisfaction when I locate an object or not. And the sense of depth looking thru the eyepiece.
Imaging on the other hand enables us to see things that we would other wise not be able to see visually. And perhaps just as important, give us tremendous efficiency and flexibility to view and analyze the data any time after the fact. We can go back to see and compare it as many times as we'd like. I guess this is also the reasons why professional astronomer embraced astrophotography in lieu of visual observations during the turn of the previous century. And there's also an addicting feeling you get when you see a successful image coming to life on the monitor,
Image Data
Optics: Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 set at 50mm f/2.8
Camera: Canon EOS X5 DSLR (unmodified)
Mount: Fixed Tripod
Mount: Fixed Tripod
Exposure: 33 X 4sec at ISO 1600 RAW
Calibration: Darks, Flats,and Bias in DeepSkyStacker by Luc Coiffier
Processing: Gradient removal in Iris by Christian Buil, levels, curves, color in PS
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
Date Time: February 21, 2012. 7:51-7:57pm PHT
Conditions: Cloudless clear sky
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