The rich star field of the constellation Gemini is home to the beautiful open cluster Messier 35 (M35), seen here as the large scattering of bright blue-white stars toward the left side of the image. M35 lies about 2,800 light-years from Earth and contains several hundred young stars that formed together from the same giant molecular cloud roughly 150 million years ago. Open clusters like M35 are loosely bound groups of stars that gradually disperse over time as gravitational interactions slowly pull them apart.

Sharing the same field of view is the much smaller and more distant cluster NGC 2158, visible near the center as a dense, golden knot of stars. Though it appears close to M35 in the sky, NGC 2158 is actually far more distant at about 16,000 light-years away and is nearly ten times older. This contrast between a young, nearby open cluster and an older, tightly packed one provides a striking reminder that objects appearing close together in the night sky can in fact be separated by vast distances across our Milky Way galaxy.

Image Description and Details :

16" f3.75 Dream Astrograph, FLI Proline 16803, Paramount MEFrames: 55x120" (1h 50')Image aquisition remotly by Cláudio Tenreiro, at Insight Observatory, New Mexico.Image processing: Ruben Barbosa.Messier 35 (M35) is a large open star cluster located in the northern constellation Gemini. The cluster consists of several hundred stars, of which 120 are brighter than magnitude 13. The central region has a density of 6.21 stars per cubic parsec. M35 is The only Messier Object located in Gemini

Copyright: Claúdio Tenreiro / Ruben Barbosa

Image Description and Details : Here is my latest photo taken night before last in the back yard. It is featuring the Jellyfish in HOO palette , the Monkey Head in SHO palette , and Star Cluster Messier 35 in RGB. The nebulosity was captured using narrowband filters that only let specified wavelengths of Sulfur, Hydrogen, and Oxygen. The stars were captured with color separate filters for Red Blue and Green. I used a Rokinon 135mm camera lens at f/2 and an ASI294MM dedicated monochrome camera.20 x 60 seconds of each L R G B 36 x300 seconds Oiii 24 x 300 seconds Sii 16 x 300 seconds HaShot Flats for all filters this morning and used my darks library. Stacked and Processed with Pixinsight and Photoshop. EZ soft stretch Starnet Automatic Background Extraction Background neutralization Save separates as Tif’s for Photoshop Copy S H and O in to RGB color channels and work levels and curves. Adjust selective colors to reduce green and pull the Hubble gold color forward. Contrast Brightness adjusted Saturation adjusted. Resize down to 2,048 pixels wide. Topaz denoise and upload.I am still learning Pixinsight. I used selective colors in Photoshop to attempt the Hubble palette colors evident in the Monkey Head. Finally I resampled to 2048 pixels wide for sharing as a Jpg and did a topaz denoise. Hope you enjoy it.

Copyright: Abe Jones

Image Description and Details :

Super APO 80mm f/6 - at f/4.75
CMOS ZWO ASI 183mm PRO
10Micron GM1000HPS

L 60 x 60 sec Gain 250 (450)
R 30 x 30 sec. Gain 250 (450)
G 30 x 30 sec. Gain 250 (450)
B 30 x 30 sec. Gain 250 (450)

Copyright Information: Bruno Monteleone