NGC 7078 or Messier 15, a bright globular in Pegasus

NGC 7078, M15, is a globular cluster in Pegasus with

a very condensed core.  Note the Integrated Flux

Nebulosity (IFN).  M15 conatins 100 000 stars

and is 35.7 kly from our solar system.

Hover over the picture for an annotated version

Date:  6 and 7 July 2024

FOV:  cropped to 60' × 40'; the angular size of M15 is about 18'

Telescope:  Stellarvue SVX102T + SFFX-1 (714mm, f/7)

Guiding:  ZWO ASI120MM mini mono guide camera,

Stellarvue F050G 50mm guide scope

Computer:  ASIair pro Raspberry Pi

Mount:  iOptron CEM40

Camera:  ZWO ASI071MC Pro Cooled (-10°C) Color CMOS with gain 90

Pixel size:  4.78 μm

Resolution:  1.333 arcsec/pixel

Filter:  none

Stacking:  one hundred and twenty-three frames using PixInsight HDRComp

40 frames × 15 sec

30 frames × 60 sec

15 frames × 240 sec end of 6 July 2024 session

38 frames × 240 sec end of 7 July 2024 session

Total Time:  4 hours 12 minutes

Processing:  Pixinsight – SPPC, DBE, SPCC, BlurXT, NoiseXT, DynCrop → Linear

MStr, GHS, HST, PMath MStr + GHS + HST → Stars, Sat,

StarXT, MStr, GHS, HST, PMath MStr + GHS + HST → Starless,

Sat, PMath ~(~Stars*~Starless) → Blend, scale

Location:  Cherry Springs State Park near Coudersport, PA