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The teeming stars of the globular cluster NGC 6544 glisten in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This cluster of tightly bound stars lies more than 8,000 light-years away from Earth and is, like all globular clusters, a densely populated region of tens of thousands of stars.
This image of NGC 6544 combines data from two of Hubble’s instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3, as well as two separate astronomical observations. The first observation was designed to find a visible counterpart to the radio pulsar discovered in NGC 6544. A pulsar is the rapidly spinning remnant of a dead star, emitting twin beams of electromagnetic radiation like a vast astronomical lighthouse. This pulsar rotates particularly quickly, and astronomers turned to Hubble to help determine how this object evolved in NGC 6544.
The second observation which contributed data to this image was also designed to find the visible counterparts of objects detected at other electromagnetic wavelengths. Instead of matching up sources to a pulsar, however, astronomers used Hubble to search for the counterparts of faint X-ray sources. Their observations could help explain how clusters like NGC 6544 change over time.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Lewin, F. R. Ferraro
For more information, visit: science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-glimpses-a-gliste...
M107
Globular cluster in Ophiuchus
Source: Hubble Legacy Archive
HST_10775_33_ACS_WFC_F606W
HST_10775_33_ACS_WFC_F814W
M13 with a Celestron NexStar 5se and Nikon D7000 at prime foucs. 78x8s exposures and 25 darks stacked in DSS.
M13, the great Hercules globular cluster. This was first light with my STL-4020M, and Astrodon LRGB filters.
NGC6441 is a globular cluster in Scopius. It is located approximately 38,000 light years from Earth. It was discovered in 1826 by James Dunlop.
3rd magnitude G Scorpius is just to the right.
This cluster is a DSO in the Astronomical League Universe Sampler program.
Imaged from New Florence, MO on August 14, 2015.
Celestron Nexstar 8SE
Orion EQ6
Canon T2i (modified)
12x300s
#NGC6441 #GScorpii #Globular #Space #Astronomy #Astrophotography
LATEST VERSION: flic.kr/p/2rxcArQ
Messier 3 / M3 / NGC 5272
Messier 3 is one of the brightest globular clusters in the northern sky and it contains about 500,000 stars. It is about 34,000 light-years away, orbiting the Milky Way, and it is estimated to be 11.39 billion years old. It is often overshadowed by M13, a slightly brighter cluster: flic.kr/p/2oKjm3J
Total integration: 8 hours 48 minutes (528 minutes)
02/17/19: 105 x 60 seconds ISO800 [Bortle 6]
03/17/19: 341 x 60 seconds ISO800 [Bortle 6]
05/02/20: 41 x 120 seconds ISO200 [Bortle 7]
Location: Charlottesville, VA and Coral Springs, FL
SQM: 19.22 mag/arcsec^2 and 18.18 mag/arcsec^2 (Bortle 6 and Bortle 8/9)
Camera: Canon T3i (stock/unmodified)
Average camera temperature: 80 F (27 C)
Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 f/6.0 Apochromatic Refractor (with ES field flattener)
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G
Guide scope: Svbony 50mm f/4.0 Guide Scope
Guide camera: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider
Software: N.I.N.A. with PlateSolve2 and PHD2
Pre-processed with PixInsight, processed with PixInsight and Paint.NET
Messier 2 or M2 (also designated NGC 7089) is a globular cluster in the constellation Aquarius, five degrees north of the star Beta Aquarii. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 and is one of the largest known globular clusters. Messier 13 (M13), also designated NGC 6205 and sometimes called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules or the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of about 300,000 stars in the constellation of Hercules. This image taken using a Meade LX-90 12" telescope with a Canon T3i at prime focus.
7x480s frames
Astro-Tech AT130EDT apo triplet, 0.8x reducer/flattener (f/5.6)
iOptron iEQ45 Pro mount
Lacerta MGEN-II autoguider with Stellarvue 9x50 guidescope
Processed in PixInsight 1.8
Messier 5 or M5 is a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens. Distance 25,000 light years
Details:
M5 (Globular Cluster)
Location: ASKC Dark Sky Site near Butler, MO
Date: April 9 and 10, 2010
Telescope: CGE 1100
Camera: Nikon D50
Reducer: Fastar lens (Net F/2)
8 images at 30 sec each (ISO1600 w/noise reduction), stacked in ImagePlus and processed in Photoshop CS2.
Meade SN10 on Celestron DX through Canon 90D and Optolong L-Pro filter. Bortle class 5 sky. 20 x 90 second subs using LENR and no calibration frames. Stacked in DSS and processed in PS.
Messier 3 is a globular star cluster located in the constellation of Canes Venatici
Optics: Celestron C-11 @ f/7.5 (2030mm), Starizona SCT Corrector
Camera: SBIG ST-10XME
Mount: Astro-Physics 900GTO
Processing: CCDStack 2, Photoshop CS5
............. to see the colors od the stars: best to be seen larger on black: clic here
..............
OMEGA CENTAURI is the largest known globular cluster of stars in our galaxy (the "Milky Way").
It's one of the few that can alredy be seen with the naked eye in the SOUTHERN SKY as a faint nebulous spot. Most of the 200 known clusters in our galaxy can only be seen by a telescope.
This enormous ball of stars located 15,000 light-years away from Earth spans 150 light years across and contains about 10 MILLION stars. It's age is 12 billion years.
The image has been taken with the use of a telescope with 0.35 m aperture and 3 m focal length and color filters (Blue, Green, Red) from a very dark site in NAMIBIA in southern Africa. The images in the different colors were added to give the color image. Total exposure time was about one hour.
#407 in Flickr EXPLORE May 30, 2007
Located 15,800 Light Years away. It is the largest Globular Cluster in the Milky Way.
it also contains several million stars and is approx 12 million years old. This is cropped from the original.
Taken with my old OM 1:1.8 50mm lens at f1.8. Given that the lens is 36 years old and the sensor is 6 years out of date I'm fairly pleased with the result, althought it is noisy and not too sharp. Photographed about 15 minutes before the end of astronomical twilight.
RAW file processed with Olympus Viewer 3.
(_9301761.orf)
Hercules Globular Cluster, also known as Messier 13 (M13)
Taken with 8 inch SC telescope (f/10), Stacked 13 x 5 min images, dark frame and flat field corrected, scaled to log intensities,
Zoomed in low res illustration of the sometimes seen 'propeller' shape within the globular cluster M13, in the constellation of Hercules.
To Emanuele who was sleeping his first night on Earth while I was taking this shot (23rd June 2006).
Messier 13 globular cluster, taken with SBIG ST7-XME and Pentax 75mm SDHF lens on Vixen GP-DX mount. RGB colour composition with Astronomik filters. Total exposure: 35 minutes per colour.
Messier 5 or M5 (also designated NGC 5904) is a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens. It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch in 1702. It should not be confused with the much fainter and more distant globular cluster Palomar 5, which is situated nearby in the sky.
Spanning 165 light-years in diameter, M5 is one of the larger globular clusters known. The gravitational sphere of influence of M5, (i.e. the volume of space in which stars are gravitationally bound to it rather than being torn away by the Milky Way's gravitational pull) has a radius of some 200 light-years.
At 13 billion years old, M5 is also one of the older globulars associated with the Milky Way Galaxy. Its distance is about 24,500 light-years from Earth and the cluster contains more than 100,000 stars, as many as 500,000 according to some estimates.
M5 is, under extremely good conditions, just visible to the naked eye as a faint "star" near the star 5 Serpentis. Binoculars or small telescopes will identify the object as non-stellar while larger telescopes will show some individual stars, of which the brightest are of apparent magnitude 12.2.
M5 was discovered by the German astronomer Gottfried Kirch in 1702 when he was observing a comet. Charles Messier also noted it in 1764, but thought it a nebula without any stars associated with it. William Herschel was the first to resolve individual stars in the cluster in 1791, counting roughly 200.
Credit: NASA/STScI/WikiSky
NGC 2419 is an unusual globular cluster because it is so far away. It's out there orbiting the Milky Way beyond the Magellanic Clouds. It's also a great fit on Hubble's detectors because of its distance and large size, which is double great because there is a robust set of data in the archive, which made filling the chip gap rather trivial. Its nickname, Intergalactic Wanderer, is somewhat of a misnomer because it is orbiting rather than wandering (read the wiki article) but I think it's a great name and gives the cluster some character.
Data primarily came from this proposal:
Red: hst_11903_41_wfc3_uvis_f814w_sci + hst_11903_41_wfc3_uvis_f775w_sci + hst_11903_41_wfc3_uvis_f625w_sci
Green: hst_11903_41_wfc3_uvis_f555w_sci
Blue: hst_11903_41_wfc3_uvis_f438w_sci
Chip gap filled with:
Red: ACS/WFC f814w (j8io01071_drz) + hst_11035_04_wfpc2_f814w_wf_sci
Green: ACS/WFC f555w (j8io01021_drz) + hst_11035_04_wfpc2_f555w_wf_sci
Blue: ACS/WFC f475w (j8io01031_drz) + hst_11035_04_wfpc2_f439w_wf_sci
North is NOT up. It is 44° counter-clockwise from up.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster M92.
Original caption: This striking new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a glittering bauble named Messier 92. Located in the northern constellation of Hercules, this globular cluster — a ball of stars that orbits a galactic core like a satellite — was first discovered by astronomer Johann Elert Bode in 1777. Messier 92 is one of the brightest globular clusters in the Milky Way, and is visible to the naked eye under good observing conditions. It is very tightly packed with stars, containing some 330 000 stars in total. As is characteristic of globular clusters, the predominant elements within Messier 92 are hydrogen and helium, with only traces of others. It is actually what is known as an Oosterhoff type II (OoII) globular cluster, meaning that it belongs to a group of metal-poor clusters — to astronomers, metals are all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. By exploring the composition of globulars like Messier 92, astronomers can figure out how old these clusters are. As well as being bright, Messier 92 is also old, being one of the oldest star clusters in the Milky Way, with an age almost the same as the age of the Universe. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Gilles Chapdelaine. Links Gilles Chapdelaine’s Hidden Treasures entry on Flickr
I have taken only the best 10x frames from the stack of 30 I collected. This is a re-process of the earlier M15 that contained more frames. A much better (and it was easier to process!) example.
Less is more sometimes, or rule to be never include any frames that look the slightest bit dodgy means a better quality result.
This image shows the centre of the globular cluster Messier 22, also known as M22, as observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Globular clusters are spherical collections of densely packed stars, relics of the early years of the Universe, with ages of typically 12 to 13 billion years. This is very old considering that the Universe is only 13.8 billion years old. Messier 22 is one of about 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way and at just 10 000 light-years away it is also one of the closest to Earth. It was discovered in 1665 by Abraham Ihle, making it one of the first globulars ever to be discovered. This is not so surprising as it is one of the brightest globular clusters visible from the northern hemisphere, located in the constellation of Sagittarius, close to the Galactic Bulge — the dense mass of stars at the centre of the Milky Way. The cluster has a diameter of about 70 light-years and, when looking from Earth, appears to take up a patch of sky the size of the full Moon. Despite its relative proximity to us, the light from the stars in the cluster is not as bright as it should be as it is dimmed by dust and gas located between us and the cluster. As they are leftovers from the early Universe, globular clusters are popular study objects for astronomers. M22 in particular has fascinating additional features: six planet-sized objects that are not orbiting a star have been detected in the cluster, it seems to host two black holes, and the cluster is one of only three ever found to host a planetary nebula — a short-lived gaseous shells ejected by massive stars at the ends of their lives.
This image shows the centre of the globular cluster Messier 22, also known as M22, as observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Globular clusters are spherical collections of densely packed stars, relics of the early years of the Universe, with ages of typically 12 to 13 billion years. This is very old considering that the Universe is only 13.8 billion years old. Messier 22 is one of about 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way and at just 10 000 light-years away it is also one of the closest to Earth. It was discovered in 1665 by Abraham Ihle, making it one of the first globulars ever to be discovered. This is not so surprising as it is one of the brightest globular clusters visible from the northern hemisphere, located in the constellation of Sagittarius, close to the Galactic Bulge — the dense mass of stars at the centre of the Milky Way. The cluster has a diameter of about 70 light-years and, when looking from Earth, appears to take up a patch of sky the size of the full Moon. Despite its relative proximity to us, the light from the stars in the cluster is not as bright as it should be as it is dimmed by dust and gas located between us and the cluster. As they are leftovers from the early Universe, globular clusters are popular study objects for astronomers. M22 in particular has fascinating additional features: six planet-sized objects that are not orbiting a star have been detected in the cluster, it seems to host two black holes, and the cluster is one of only three ever found to host a planetary nebula — a short-lived gaseous shells ejected by massive stars at the ends of their lives.
Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster.
Many young stars from this cloud are visible in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest clouds of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Image Credit: NASA
Source: www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2409.html
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the core of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. Inverted color variant.
Original caption: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope snapped this panoramic view of a colourful assortment of 100 000 stars residing in the crowded core of a giant star cluster. The image reveals a small region inside the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri, which boasts nearly 10 million stars. Globular clusters, ancient swarms of stars united by gravity, are almost as old as our Milky Way galaxy. The stars in Omega Centauri are between 10 billion and 12 billion years old. The cluster lies about 16 000 light-years from Earth. This is one of the first images taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), installed aboard Hubble in May 2009, during Servicing Mission 4. The camera can snap sharp images over a broad range of wavelengths. The photograph showcases the camera's colour versatility by revealing a variety of stars in key stages of their life cycles. The majority of the stars in the image are yellow-white, like our Sun. These are adult stars that are shining by hydrogen fusion. Towards the ends of their normal lives, the stars become cooler and larger. These late-life stars are the orange dots in the image. Even later in their life cycles, the stars continue to cool down and expand in size, becoming red giants. These bright red stars swell to many times larger than our Sun's size and begin to shed their gaseous envelopes. After ejecting most of their mass and exhausting much of their hydrogen fuel, the stars appear brilliant blue. Only a thin layer of material covers their super-hot cores. These stars are desperately trying to extend their lives by fusing helium in their cores. At this stage, they emit much of their light at ultraviolet wavelengths. When the helium runs out, the stars reach the end of their lives. Only their burnt-out cores remain, and they are called white dwarfs (the faint blue dots in the image). White dwarfs are no longer generating energy through nuclear fusion and have gravitationally contracted to the size of Earth. They will continue to cool and grow dimmer for many billions of years until they become dark cinders. Other stars that appear in the image are known as "blue stragglers". They are older stars that acquire a new lease of life when they collide and merge with other stars. The encounters boost the stars' energy-production rate, making them appear bluer. All of the stars in the image are cosy neighbours. The average distance between any two stars in the cluster's crowded core is only about a third of a light-year, roughly 13 times closer than our Sun's nearest stellar neighbour, Proxima Centauri. Although the stars are close together, WFC3's sharpness can resolve each of them as individual stars. If anyone lived in this globular cluster, they would behold a star-saturated sky that is roughly 100 times brighter than Earth's sky. Globular clusters were thought to be assemblages of stars that share the same birth date. Evidence suggests, however, that Omega Centauri has at least two populations of stars with different ages. Some astronomers think that the cluster may be the remnant of a small galaxy that was gravitationally disrupted long ago by the Milky Way, losing stars and gas. Omega Centauri is among the biggest and most massive of some 200 globular clusters orbiting the Milky Way. It is one of the few globular clusters that can be seen with the unaided eye. Named by Johann Bayer in 1603 as the 24th brightest object in the constellation of Centaurus, it resembles a small cloud in the southern sky and might easily be mistaken for a comet. Hubble observed Omega Centauri on 15 July 2009, in ultraviolet and visible light. These Hubble observations of Omega Centauri are part of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Early Release Observations.
Un ammasso globulare è un raggruppamento sferico e concentrato composto da alcune decine di migliaia fino ad un milione di stelle, tipicamente localizzato nell’alone esterno di una galassia. L’ammasso globulare qua fotografato venne scoperto dall’astronomo francese Charles Messier nel 1764 e inserito al terzo posto nel suo catalogo di oggetti “nebulosi”, per questo l’ammasso è anche noto con il nome M3.
Si trova nella costellazione dei Cani da Caccia, dista 32500 anni luce dalla Terra e ha un diametro reale di 150 anni luce: il diametro apparente con cui lo vediamo in cielo è circa 4 volte più piccolo del diametro del disco della Luna piena.
E’ un oggetto molto luminoso, tanto che può essere scorto anche un con un piccolo binocolo sotto un cielo buio, mostrandosi come un batuffolo di luce.
La foto è stata scattata nell'Appennino Pavese.
Dati tecnici
Telescopio Celestron diametro 235 mm e focale 1480mm
Canon EOS 400D modificata Baader
Montatura Losmandy G11 con FS2
Guida con rifrattore 80/600 + Lodestar, PhD Guiding con Dithermaster
Posa totale di 43’ (8 scatti da 1’ + 7 scatti da 5’), Iso 800
21 + 21flat, 21 + 21 dark flat, 7 + 7 dark
Elaborazione con sw Iris e Photoshop
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A globular cluster is a spherical and concentrated grouping composed by some ten thousand till one million of stars, typically localized in the external halo of a galaxy.
The globular cluster here represented was discovered by the French astronomer Charles Messier in 1764 and inserted in the third place of its catalogue of “nebular” objects; for this reason this object is also known with the name M3.
It is located in the Canes Venatici constellation: it is 32500 light years far away, has a real diameter of 150light years, but we see in the sky with an apparent diameter about 4 times less than the diameter of the full Moon.
Technical data
Telescope Celestron diameter 235 mm, focal lenght 1480mm
Canon EOS 400D Baader modified
Mount Losmandy G11 with FS2
Guide with refractor 80/600 + Lodestar, PhD Guiding con Dithermaster
Total exposure time: 43’ (8 shots of 1’ + 7 shots of 5’), Iso 800
21 + 21flat, 21 + 21 dark flat, 7 + 7 dark
Processing with sw Iris and Photoshop
Edited Chandra Space Telescope (along with other telescopes) image of a globular cluster with ripped apart solar systems. Pink is x-rays.
Original caption: Using Chandra and several other telescopes, researchers have found evidence that a white dwarf star - the dense core of a star like the Sun that has run out of nuclear fuel - may have ripped apart a planet as it came too close. This composite image provides one of the clues: Chandra shows that the X-rays (pink) are not coming from the cluster's center, as is evident when combined with visible light data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue). Instead, the details of the combined datasets point to a possible tidal disruption where one astronomical object destroys another through powerful gravitational forces.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster M92. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: This striking new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a glittering bauble named Messier 92. Located in the northern constellation of Hercules, this globular cluster — a ball of stars that orbits a galactic core like a satellite — was first discovered by astronomer Johann Elert Bode in 1777. Messier 92 is one of the brightest globular clusters in the Milky Way, and is visible to the naked eye under good observing conditions. It is very tightly packed with stars, containing some 330 000 stars in total. As is characteristic of globular clusters, the predominant elements within Messier 92 are hydrogen and helium, with only traces of others. It is actually what is known as an Oosterhoff type II (OoII) globular cluster, meaning that it belongs to a group of metal-poor clusters — to astronomers, metals are all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. By exploring the composition of globulars like Messier 92, astronomers can figure out how old these clusters are. As well as being bright, Messier 92 is also old, being one of the oldest star clusters in the Milky Way, with an age almost the same as the age of the Universe. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Gilles Chapdelaine. Links Gilles Chapdelaine’s Hidden Treasures entry on Flickr
I turned an ESO image of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae into a kaleidoscopic image for fun.
Original caption: This bright cluster of stars is 47 Tucanae (NGC 104), shown here in an image taken by ESOâs VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) from the Paranal Observatory in Chile. This cluster is located around 15 000 light-years away from us and contains millions of stars, some of which are unusual and exotic. This image was taken as part of the VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey, a project that is scanning the region of the Magellanic Clouds, two small galaxies that are very close to our Milky Way.
Saturn, Scorpius and the core of the Milky Way, taken at Lake Moogerah, Australia. Multi-image panorama taken using Canon 600D DSLR and Canon 50mm f/1.8 "Nifty Fifty" @f/2.8, ISO 3200.
This striking view of the globular star cluster Messier 55 in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) was obtained in infrared light with the VISTA survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This vast ball of ancient stars is located at a distance of about 17 000 light-years from Earth.
More information: www.eso.org/public/images/eso1220a/
Credit:
ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
Just a quick one I did last night as I was re-polar aligning the scope after setting back up in my yard (had taken everything out to Big Bend for our trip) ... its not perfect, focus was a bit off on some of the colors, but I was more just testing my alignment before I drift aligned to fine tune it ... but it turned out ok so I thought I would post anyways.
Data:
Camera: Atik 314L+
Scope: Orion EON80ED piggybacked on Celestron CPC800
Guiding: none
Filters: Astronomik L,R,G,B
Exposure: L: 30 x 60s binned 1x1, R, G, B: each 20 x 60s binned 2x2
Capture software: Artemis Capture
Calibration and stacking: Nebulosity
Post Processing: Photoshop CS2
This image shows the centre of the globular cluster Messier 22, also known as M22, as observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Globular clusters are spherical collections of densely packed stars, relics of the early years of the Universe, with ages of typically 12 to 13 billion years. This is very old considering that the Universe is only 13.8 billion years old. Messier 22 is one of about 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way and at just 10 000 light-years away it is also one of the closest to Earth. It was discovered in 1665 by Abraham Ihle, making it one of the first globulars ever to be discovered. This is not so surprising as it is one of the brightest globular clusters visible from the northern hemisphere, located in the constellation of Sagittarius, close to the Galactic Bulge — the dense mass of stars at the centre of the Milky Way. The cluster has a diameter of about 70 light-years and, when looking from Earth, appears to take up a patch of sky the size of the full Moon. Despite its relative proximity to us, the light from the stars in the cluster is not as bright as it should be as it is dimmed by dust and gas located between us and the cluster. As they are leftovers from the early Universe, globular clusters are popular study objects for astronomers. M22 in particular has fascinating additional features: six planet-sized objects that are not orbiting a star have been detected in the cluster, it seems to host two black holes, and the cluster is one of only three ever found to host a planetary nebula — a short-lived gaseous shells ejected by massive stars at the ends of their lives.
The glittering, glitzy contents of the globular cluster NGC 6652 sparkle in this star-studded image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The core of the cluster is suffused with the pale blue light of countless stars, and a handful of particularly bright foreground stars are adorned with crisscrossing diffraction spikes. NGC 6652 lies in our own Milky Way galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius, just under 30,000 light-years from Earth and only 6,500 light-years from the galactic center.
Globular clusters are stable, tightly gravitationally bound clusters containing anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of stars. The intense gravitational attraction between closely packed stars in globular clusters is what gives these star-studded objects their regular, spherical shape.
This image combines data from two of Hubble’s most powerful cameras: the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. It also uses data from two different observing programs conducted by two different teams of astronomers. The first team set out to survey globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy in the hope of shedding light on topics ranging from the ages of these objects to the gravitational potential of the galaxy as a whole. The second team of astronomers used a trio of exquisitely sensitive filters in Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to disentangle the proportions of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in globular clusters such as NGC 6652.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto
For more information, visit: science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-glimpses-a-glitzy...
Edited Chandra Space Telescope image of a double star system in Terzan 5.
Image source: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2020/terzan5/
Original caption: A double star system has been flipping between two alter egos, according to observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation's Karl F. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). Using nearly a decade and a half worth of Chandra data, researchers noticed that a stellar duo behaved like one type of object before switching its identity, and then returning to its original state after a few years. This is a rare example of a star system changing its behavior in this way.
Astronomers found this volatile double, or binary, system in a dense collection of stars, the globular cluster Terzan 5, which is located about 19,000 light years from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. This stellar duo, known as Terzan 5 CX1, has a neutron star (the extremely dense remnant left behind by a supernova explosion) in close orbit around a star similar to the Sun, but with less mass.
In this new image of Terzan 5 (right), low, medium and high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra are colored red, green and blue respectively. On the left, an image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the same field of view in optical light. Terzan 5 CX1 is labeled as CX1 in the Chandra image.
In binary systems like Terzan 5 CX1, the heavier neutron star pulls material from the lower-mass companion into a surrounding disk. Astronomers can detect these so-called accretion disks by their bright X-ray light, and refer to these objects as "low-mass X-ray binaries."
Spinning material in the disk falls onto the surface of the neutron star, increasing its rotation rate. The neutron star can spin faster and faster until the roughly 10-mile-wide sphere, packed with more mass than the Sun, is rotating hundreds of times per second. Eventually, the transfer of matter slows down and the remaining material is swept away by the whirling magnetic field of the neutron star, which becomes a millisecond pulsar. Astronomers detect pulses of radio waves from these millisecond pulsars as the neutron star's beam of radio emission sweeps over the Earth during each rotation.
While scientists expect the complete evolution of a low-mass X-ray binary into a millisecond pulsar should happen over several billion years, there is a period of time when the system can switch rapidly between these two states. Chandra observations of Terzan 5 CX1 show that it was acting like a low-mass X-ray binary in 2003, because it was brighter in X-rays than any of the dozens of other sources in the globular cluster. This was a sign that the neutron star was likely accumulating matter.
In Chandra data taken from 2009 to 2014, Terzan 5 CX1 had become about ten times fainter in X-rays. Astronomers also detected it as a radio source with the VLA in 2012 and 2014. The amount of radio and X-ray emission and the corresponding spectra (the amount of emission at different wavelengths) agree with expectations for a millisecond pulsar. Although the radio data used did not allow a search for millisecond pulses, these results imply that Terzan 5 CX1 underwent a transformation into behaving like a millisecond pulsar and was blowing material outwards. By the time Chandra had observed Terzan 5 CX1 again in 2016, it had become brighter in X-rays and changed back to acting like a low-mass X-ray binary again.
To confirm this pattern of "Jekyll and Hyde" behavior, astronomers need to detect radio pulses while Terzan 5 CX1 is faint in X-rays. More radio and X-ray observations are planned to search for this behavior, along with sensitive searches for pulses in existing data. Only three confirmed examples of these identity-changing systems are known, with the first discovered in 2013 using Chandra and several other X-ray and radio telescopes.
The study of this binary was led by Arash Bahramian of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), Australia and was published in the September 1st, 2018 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. A preprint is available here.
Two other recent studies have used Chandra observations of Terzan 5 to study how neutron stars in two different low-mass X-ray binaries recover after having had large amounts of material dumped on their surface by a companion star. Such studies are important for understanding the structure of a neutron star's outer layer, known as its crust.
In one of these studies, of the low-mass X-ray binary Swift J174805.3–244637 (T5 X-3 for short), material dumped onto the neutron star during an X-ray outburst detected by Chandra in 2012 heated up the star's crust. The crust of the neutron star then cooled down, taking about a hundred days to fall back to the temperature seen before the outburst. The rate of cooling agrees with a computer model for such a process.
In a separate Chandra study of a different low-mass X-ray binary in Terzan 5, IGR J17480–2446 (T5 X-2 for short) the neutron star was still cooling when its temperature was taken five and a half years after it was known to have an outburst. These results show this neutron star's crust ability to transfer, or conduct, heat may be lower than what astronomers have found in other cooling neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. This difference in the ability to conduct heat may be related to T5 X-2 having a higher magnetic field compared to other cooling neutron stars, or being much younger than T5 X-3.
Both T5 X-3 and T5 X-2 are labeled in the image.
The work on the rapidly cooling neutron star, led by Nathalie Degenaar of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, was published in the June 2015 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and a preprint is available here. The study of the slowly cooling neutron star, led by Laura Ootes, then of the University of Amsterdam, was published in the July 2019 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and a preprint is available here.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge and Burlington, Massachusetts.
Cet amas globulaire est situé dans la constellation des chiens de chasse.
Lunette Orion 110mm ed F/7
Monture HEQ-5 Pro
Canon Xs (1000D) à 800iso.
Expo: 10 x 4min. Total: 40min.
Célestron NextGuide
St-Agapit (Québec), 30 mai 2011.
Edited Chandra Space Telescope image of a double star system in Terzan 5. Color/processing variant.
Image source: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2020/terzan5/
Original caption: A double star system has been flipping between two alter egos, according to observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation's Karl F. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). Using nearly a decade and a half worth of Chandra data, researchers noticed that a stellar duo behaved like one type of object before switching its identity, and then returning to its original state after a few years. This is a rare example of a star system changing its behavior in this way.
Astronomers found this volatile double, or binary, system in a dense collection of stars, the globular cluster Terzan 5, which is located about 19,000 light years from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. This stellar duo, known as Terzan 5 CX1, has a neutron star (the extremely dense remnant left behind by a supernova explosion) in close orbit around a star similar to the Sun, but with less mass.
In this new image of Terzan 5 (right), low, medium and high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra are colored red, green and blue respectively. On the left, an image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the same field of view in optical light. Terzan 5 CX1 is labeled as CX1 in the Chandra image.
In binary systems like Terzan 5 CX1, the heavier neutron star pulls material from the lower-mass companion into a surrounding disk. Astronomers can detect these so-called accretion disks by their bright X-ray light, and refer to these objects as "low-mass X-ray binaries."
Spinning material in the disk falls onto the surface of the neutron star, increasing its rotation rate. The neutron star can spin faster and faster until the roughly 10-mile-wide sphere, packed with more mass than the Sun, is rotating hundreds of times per second. Eventually, the transfer of matter slows down and the remaining material is swept away by the whirling magnetic field of the neutron star, which becomes a millisecond pulsar. Astronomers detect pulses of radio waves from these millisecond pulsars as the neutron star's beam of radio emission sweeps over the Earth during each rotation.
While scientists expect the complete evolution of a low-mass X-ray binary into a millisecond pulsar should happen over several billion years, there is a period of time when the system can switch rapidly between these two states. Chandra observations of Terzan 5 CX1 show that it was acting like a low-mass X-ray binary in 2003, because it was brighter in X-rays than any of the dozens of other sources in the globular cluster. This was a sign that the neutron star was likely accumulating matter.
In Chandra data taken from 2009 to 2014, Terzan 5 CX1 had become about ten times fainter in X-rays. Astronomers also detected it as a radio source with the VLA in 2012 and 2014. The amount of radio and X-ray emission and the corresponding spectra (the amount of emission at different wavelengths) agree with expectations for a millisecond pulsar. Although the radio data used did not allow a search for millisecond pulses, these results imply that Terzan 5 CX1 underwent a transformation into behaving like a millisecond pulsar and was blowing material outwards. By the time Chandra had observed Terzan 5 CX1 again in 2016, it had become brighter in X-rays and changed back to acting like a low-mass X-ray binary again.
To confirm this pattern of "Jekyll and Hyde" behavior, astronomers need to detect radio pulses while Terzan 5 CX1 is faint in X-rays. More radio and X-ray observations are planned to search for this behavior, along with sensitive searches for pulses in existing data. Only three confirmed examples of these identity-changing systems are known, with the first discovered in 2013 using Chandra and several other X-ray and radio telescopes.
The study of this binary was led by Arash Bahramian of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), Australia and was published in the September 1st, 2018 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. A preprint is available here.
Two other recent studies have used Chandra observations of Terzan 5 to study how neutron stars in two different low-mass X-ray binaries recover after having had large amounts of material dumped on their surface by a companion star. Such studies are important for understanding the structure of a neutron star's outer layer, known as its crust.
In one of these studies, of the low-mass X-ray binary Swift J174805.3–244637 (T5 X-3 for short), material dumped onto the neutron star during an X-ray outburst detected by Chandra in 2012 heated up the star's crust. The crust of the neutron star then cooled down, taking about a hundred days to fall back to the temperature seen before the outburst. The rate of cooling agrees with a computer model for such a process.
In a separate Chandra study of a different low-mass X-ray binary in Terzan 5, IGR J17480–2446 (T5 X-2 for short) the neutron star was still cooling when its temperature was taken five and a half years after it was known to have an outburst. These results show this neutron star's crust ability to transfer, or conduct, heat may be lower than what astronomers have found in other cooling neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. This difference in the ability to conduct heat may be related to T5 X-2 having a higher magnetic field compared to other cooling neutron stars, or being much younger than T5 X-3.
Both T5 X-3 and T5 X-2 are labeled in the image.
The work on the rapidly cooling neutron star, led by Nathalie Degenaar of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, was published in the June 2015 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and a preprint is available here. The study of the slowly cooling neutron star, led by Laura Ootes, then of the University of Amsterdam, was published in the July 2019 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and a preprint is available here.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge and Burlington, Massachusetts.
M10 (also known as Messier 10 or NGC 6254) is a globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus. It is estimated to be 14,300 light-years away from Earth with a spatial diameter of 83 light-years. With uncertain weather conditions and the need to test the system following a refreshing of Windows and the re-installation of software, we opted for an easy target but it's one we hadn't imaged before and we can now tick it off the Messier list. Anyway, it's been a year since we last imaged a globular cluster and these spherical collections of stars are fascinating.
019 x 180 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
054 x dark frames
020 x flat frames
100 x bias frames (subtracted from flat frames)
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 57 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
M13 is a globular cluster about 23,000 light years from Earth made up of 100,000+ stars. It is about 145 light years across in size. The stars are so closely packed that if the Earth orbited a star near M13's core, it might not get dark out at night.
Seen nearby are two faint spiral galaxies: NGC 6207 with a brightness of magnitude 11.6 and around 120 Million light years away and IC 4617, at 15.5 magnitude and around 500 Million light years away.
15x 1 minute exposures, 10'' Meade SN-10AT telescope, Canon T1i Camera ISO800. Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker. 15 minutes total exposure time.
Zoom in to the full size image ... if you want to see how astigmatism in the telescope degrades an astrophoto.