M12 Gumball Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus

Messier 12 (M12), also known as the Gumball Globular, is a globular star cluster located in the constellation Ophiuchus. The Gumball Globular lies at a distance of 15,700 light years from Earth and has a diameter of 75 light years. It has the designation NGC 6218 in the New General Catalogue.

 

The high concentration of stars within globular clusters provides such cramped living quarters that it makes them home to exotic binary star systems where two stars are locked in tight orbits around each other. Matter from one is gobbled up by its companion, releasing X-rays formed from very close encounters between stars in crowded regions. It looks pretty but don't stand too close for very long.

 

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Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C

Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam

Guide via: ZWO OAG

 

Stacked from:

Lights 33 at 60 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Darks 30 at 60 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Flat 30 at 690 ms, gain 101, temp -10C

Dark Flat 30 at 690 ms, gain 101 temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.

Processed in PixInsight

Captions added in Photoshop CS4

 

 

Done