Martijn's astronomy pages

Star clusters are part of our galaxy, the Milky Way. They come in two flavours: open clusters and globular clusters. Globular cluster are very old, about the age of the milky way itself. Open clusters are physically related groups of stars held together by mutual gravitational attraction. They consist of stars of the same age as they were all born in the same cloud of gas.

This is the famous globular cluster M13 in Hercules. May 24, 2012 using a 8" RC @ f/8 and Atik 383L camera. 4x180s and 2x60s 2x2 binned.

This image of the globular cluster M56 was taken on August 2, 2005 using a 10" LX200 @ f/6.3. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and an exposure time of 30s.

This image of the globular cluster M92 was taken on June 19, 2005 using a 10" LX200 @ f/6.3. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and an exposure time of 25s.

This image of the open cluster M103 was taken on August 5, 2005 using a 10" LX200 @ f/10. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and an exposure time of 15s.

This image of the globular cluster M3 was taken on August 16, 2005 using a 10" LX200 @ f/10. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and exposure times of 30s. I stacked 3 images. M3 was low in the sky and the sky conditions were not good: hazy clouds and it started to get foggy. I wanted to image M3 anyway as it was probably the last opportunity this year.

This image of the globular cluster M15 was taken on August 28, 2005 using a 10" LX200 @ f/10. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and an exposure time of 30s.

This image of the open cluster M71 was taken on August 28, 2005 using a 10" LX200 @ f/10. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and an exposure time of 30s. I also seem to have captured a faint meteor.

This image of the open cluster M44 was taken on January 28, 2006 using a 10" LX200 @ f/6.3. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and an exposure time of 2 minutes.

This image of the open cluster M35 was taken on January 28, 2006 using a 10" LX200 @ f/6.3. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and an exposure time of 1 minute.

This image of the open cluster M37 was taken on January 28, 2006 using a 10" LX200 @ f/6.3. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and an exposure time of 1 minute.

This image of the open cluster M45 ("the pleiads" or "seven sisters") was taken on November 1, 2006 using a William Optics Z80. I used the Canon EOS350D at prime focus and a total exposure time of 3 minutes (10x30 seconds).