NGC 5139 Omega Centauri Centarus

Date: 3/16/2007

Location: Blair Valley in Anza Borrego SP, California Conditions: 0% moon, seeing 5/10, transparency 6/10, temperature 55-45 F, very dry night.

Telescope: Televue 85 refractor

Mount: Losmandy G11, Gemini goto, polar scope, drift alignment also done. I used a C8 with a 9mm reticule ep at 200 magnification to drift align taking about 45 minutes to align.

Camera: Canon Rebel 300D

Focusing: Manual on Sirius using a right angle Canon 2.5 magnifying view finder along with Images plus 2.75 focusing program.

Exposures: (8) 3 min RAW at ISO 800, (7) bias RAW, (7) darks RAW, (7) flats RAW of blue sky in morning.

Processing: IP2.75 converted to FITS, align-rotate, combine median, DDP with sharpening, color balanced, PS CS , curves, color balance, unsharp mask,Noel Carboni's tools contrast balance, noise despeckle, Neat image noise reduction on outside selection only, reduced size for web.

Comments: The cluster was very low in the horizon which required lots of color balance as the stars were very orange - yellow because of low altitude. This is the largest cluster in the sky.