King Cobra, M67

Jan 2022

Imaging: TS80 apo, ZWO ASI533 (100 gain, 0C), FILTER Neo
Subs: TBD, darks, flats, and darkflats
Software: NINA, Phd2, PixInsight

(Additional notes below)

Gallery

Notes

Messier 67, also known as the King Cobra, is an open star cluster in the constellation Cancer. According to Wikipedia, estimates of its age range from 3.2 to 5 billion years, and distance from earth between 2,600 and 2,900LY. It has more than 100 stars similar to our Sun and over 500 stars in total.

I captured the images for this photo in late December and early January. This is a relatively short total capture time of only 4 hours so it doesn't quite have the detail it could, and I was also battling some issues with the optics on my setup. Nevertheless, the magesty of the star field clearly comes across. Look at all those stars! This is an area of about 1.6 deg square which translates to about the size of your thumbnail held at arm's length. In this little tiny area of the sky, in just our galaxy, here are the potential suns for our potential neighbors. Science aside, I stared at this on a big screen for a long time. What would a painting by God practicing his abstract art look like? Maybe something like this? Manting jokingly reminds me of a quote that Art doesn't speak to everyone when I don't appreciate some museum piece or the other. But images like this do speak to me.