Photo of the Week for December 26, 2014
M52 is a fine, rich open cluster when viewed in a telescope and can even be seen readily in binoculars. And yet, it’s often overlooked by astrophotographers. That’s because it has a flashy nebular neighbour. As Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, astrophotographer Art Cole notes, “M52 is a bit underrated, probably because it’s so close to the Bubble Nebula — but it’s a spectacular object on its own.” His photo certainly conveys that.
To make this image, Cole digitally combined 44, one-minute exposures captured late last November with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR camera attached to a Celestron 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.
