M50 was discovered by Charles Messier and included in his catalogue on 5 April 1772, but had been observed by G. D. Cassini sometime before 1711. It is some 3000 light-years away and subtends 20 arc-minutes in the sky, making it about 18 light-years in diameter. It is estimated to be 78 million years old.
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The cluster is only just small enough to fit onto the sensor of my MX716 so more or less fills this picture. Sadly it is in monochrome because the bright star near the bottom, centre of the image is a red giant star as shown nicely in this colourful image. Date and Time: 27th January 2012 00:12 to 00:30 UT Camera: MX716 Telescope: LX200 with 0.33 focal reducer and Astronomik CLS filter. Capture: star_mx7. 30 sec, 10 frames, 60 sec 10 frames. Processing: Registax. 20 frames stacked, wavelets 1-2=5. Focus Magic 3, 100. |
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This picture was taken with a DSLR and is therefore in colour, but only in the case of Kemble's Cascade have I ever managed to record colours in stars. It is a wider-angled picture than the one above and it is not obvious where the cluster starts and finishes, or indeed which stars are part of the cluster and which are not. Move your mouse over the picture and you will see a circle; this is the size and position indicated by Cartes du Ciel. Date and Time: 23rd March 2020 21:17 to 21:31 UT Camera: Canon 1100D Telescope: 8-inch Ritchey-Chrétien. Capture: Canon EOS. 30 sec, ISO 800, 20 frames and 10 each of darks and flats Processing: Registax. 20 frames stacked, wavelets 1-2=10. Focus Magic radius 4 Reduced to size in PhotoImpact |
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