Hello John,
I guess because of the blooming you stacked a number of < 60 sec
exposures. Or did you remove the blooming in post-processing.
Easy for me to casually remark "Oh yes, very pretty" without
realising the difficulties the subject presents. Until one tries the
same thing oneself! Well it is pretty and I also noted that the stars
are all sharp and round and the colour looks correct (all departments
that invariably cause me trouble!). What I like is the subtleties
your image reveals in the density of the nebulosity.

clear skies,
Serena

--- In ccdimaging2@yahoogroups.com, "John A. Blackwell" <johnb@r...>
wrote:
> Hi Serena,
>
> It is a neat subject. The open cluster is loose and not very well
> condensed, and there is a definite dark nebula visible strong in
the
> northern regions. What is most challenging about this object is
that
> there are bright stars in it. With my non-antiblooming imager, all
> of them bloom in less than a minute. Also there are interesting
blue
> fringes towards the edge of the gas cloud suggesting reflections
> from the nearby stars.
>
> ~john
>
> --- In ccdimaging2@yahoogroups.com, serena_aussie <no_reply@y...>
> wrote:
> > That is a nice image John. Interesting to have a diffuse nebula
in
> > the "middle" of an open cluster -- are these related objects or
> just
> > optical coincidences? In your image I see no evidence of the
> > periphery of the cluster, so presumably it is actually a bit
> larger
> > than my star chart states (nebula 12 x 12 mins, cluster 20 mins).
> > Perhaps there is some more nebulosity that was too faint to be
> > recorded in your excellent image. Of course not visible from here.
> >
> > Serena