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Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 6139. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: This rich and dense smattering of stars is a massive globular cluster, a gravitationally-bound collection of stars that orbits the Milky Way. Globular clusters are denser and more spherical than open star clusters like the famous Pleiades. They typically contain hundreds of thousands of stars that are thought to have formed at roughly the same time. Studies have shown that this globular cluster, named NGC 6139, is home to an aging population of stars. Most globular clusters orbiting the Milky Way are estimated to be over 10 billion years old; as a result they contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy, formed very early in the galaxy’s history. However, their role in galactic evolution is still a matter of study. This cluster is seen roughly in the direction of the centre of the Milky Way, in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). This constellation is a goldmine of fascinating astronomical objects. Hubble has set its sights on Scorpius many times to observe objects such as the butterfly-like Bug Nebula, surprising binary star systems, and other dazzling globular clusters.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 2419.
Original caption: Globular clusters like NGC 2419, visible in this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, are not only beautiful, but also fascinating. They are spherical groups of stars which orbit the centre of a galaxy; in the case of NGC 2419, that galaxy is the Milky Way. NGC 2419 can be found around 300 000 light-years from the Solar System, in the constellation Lynx (the Lynx). The stars populating globular clusters are very similar to one another, with similar properties such as metallicity. The similarity of these stellar doppelgängers is due to their formation early in the history of the galaxy. As the stars in a globular cluster all formed at around the same time, they tend to display reasonably homogeneous properties. It was believed that this similarity also extended to the stellar helium content; that is, it was thought that all stars in a globular cluster would contain comparable amounts of helium. However, Hubble’s observations of NGC 2419 have shown that this is not always the case. This surprising globular cluster turns out to be made up of two separate populations of red giant stars, one of which is unusually helium-rich. Other elements within the different stars in NGC 2419 vary too — nitrogen in particular. On top of this, these helium-rich stars were found to be predominantly in the centre of the globular cluster, and to be rotating. These observations have raised questions about the formation of globular clusters; did these two drastically different groups of stars form together? Or did this globular cluster come into being by a different route entirely?
w/radio armada, reggay lords, gözer (& their fucking umlaut), karuhata, & globular cluster. 11/1/14 @ the swamp, eastrev productions.
Also in the field is the slightly smaller and dimmer globular cluster NGC 6356 in the upper left of the frame and the dark nebula B64 to the right of M9.
Equipment: Nikon D5300, Tamron SP 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di VC USD lens, and iOptron Skytracker. Taken at 300mm, f/8.0, ISO 6400, 60 frames of 30 seconds each plus 30 darks. Stacked in Regim and cropped/processed in Lightroom.
Another take on M15 - reworking with a slightly different data set.
Same set of lights, recalibrated with no scaling in Maxim. Also, changed up the PI steps a little to keep from burning the birightest stars.
Otherwise, it's pretty much the same.
Last few days, the comet C/2017 K2 approached the globular star cluster M10 in the constellation of Ophiuchus. I used this event to test my new borrowed telescope Vixen 81S. The effective focal length with my camera is 1000mm, which was perfect to take this rare event.
🔭Vixen 81S (81/625mm, effective focal length 1000mm), EQ-5 mount
Canon EOS 760D
EXIF: 60x30", ISO 3200 (30 minutes in total)
16/07/2022, Jitrava, Czech Republic (Bortle 5)
L'étoile Antarès et ses environs. On distingue notamment l'amas globulaire M4.
Image réalisée en empilant avec GIMP 21 images réalisées avec un appareil de type Bridge. Traitement final cosmétique avec GIMP.
Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 20m (5 x 4m) ISO 800 RGB
Filter: Orion Skyglow Imaging Filter
Flattener/Correction: Anteres .63x Focal Reducer
Focus Method: Prime focus
Telescope Aperature/Focal Length: 256×2500mm
Telescope: Meade LX200-GPS 10" ACF
Guided: Yes - PHD Guiding
Stacked: DeepSkyStacker
Adjustments: cropped/leveled in Photoshop
Location: Flintstone, GA
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 1898 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Dithered variant.
Original caption: This glittering ball of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1898, which lies towards the centre of the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of our closest cosmic neighbours. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy that hosts an extremely rich population of star clusters, making it an ideal laboratory for investigating star formation. Discovered in November 1834 by British astronomer John Herschel, NGC 1898 has been scrutinised numerous times by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Today we know that globular clusters belong to the oldest known objects in the Universe and that they are relics of the first epochs of galaxy formation. While we already have a pretty good picture on the globular clusters of the Milky Way — still with many unanswered questions — our studies on globular clusters in nearby dwarf galaxies just started. The observations of NGC 1898 will help to determine if their properties are similar to the ones found in the Milky Way, or if they have different features, due to being in a different cosmic environment. This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The WFC3 observes light ranging from near-infrared to near-ultraviolet wavelengths, while the ACS explores the near-infrared to the ultraviolet.
Globular Cluster M13
Messier 13 or the Hercules Globular Cluster is about 145 light-years in diameter and is composed of several hundred thousand stars. M13 is 22,200–25,000 light-years away from Earth and is one of over one hundred that orbit the centre of the Milky Way.
"Globular clusters are nearly spherical collections of hundreds of thousands of stars, held together by mutual gravitational attraction. These beautiful objects are nearly free of gas and dust, and contain some of the oldest stars in a galaxy.
The Milky Way is host to around 150 known globular clusters, and a few more are likely to exist hidden behind the thick disk of our galaxy. The number of globular clusters in a given galaxy seems to depend on its mass: the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest big galactic neighbour, has over 400 clusters, while the giant elliptical galaxy M87 is home to more than ten thousand."
Pictured below is the Hercules globular cluster - M13 cropped and an uncropped version showing annotation of all the distant galaxies in the field of view.
Gear
3” Refractor - WO GT71 on HEQ5 Pro (guided)
ZWO EAF, EFW, 294mm all controlled by ASI AIR Pro
Filters - Optolong L,R,G,B (5hrs, 1hr, 1hr, 1hr - total integration 8hrs)
Shot from Bortle 4 Central Ontario (Just south of Peterborough)
Stacked in APP, Processed in PI
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster Messier 53. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: Thousands and thousands of brilliant stars make up this globular cluster, Messier 53, captured with crystal clarity in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Bound tightly by gravity, the cluster is roughly spherical and becomes denser towards its heart. These enormous sparkling spheres are by no means rare, and over 150 exist in the Milky Way alone, including Messier 53. It lies on the outer edges of the galaxy, where many other globular clusters are found, almost equally distant from both the centre of our galaxy and the Sun. Although they are relatively common, the famous astronomer William Herschel, not at all known for his poetic nature, once described a globular cluster as “one of the most beautiful objects I remember to have seen in the heavens”, and it is clear to see why. Globular clusters are much older and larger than open clusters, meaning they are generally expected to contain more old red stars and fewer massive blue stars. But Messier 53 has surprised astronomers with its unusual number of a type of star called blue stragglers. These youngsters are rebelling against the theory of stellar evolution. All the stars in a globular cluster are expected to form around the same time, so they are expected follow a specific trend set by the age of the cluster and based on their mass. But blue stragglers don’t follow that rule; they appear to be brighter and more youthful than they have any right to be. Although their precise nature remains mysterious these unusual objects are probably formed by close encounters, possibly collisions, between stars in the crowded centres of globular clusters. This picture was put together from visible and infrared exposures taken with the Wide Field Channel of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.The field of view is approximately 3.4 arcminutes across.
Globular Cluster M12 taken with a 6" f4 Cave Astrola reflector telescope. This is a 20 minute exposure.
Globular Cluster (NGC 1851)
Globular Cluster in Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy
2013-12-28 (Thailand)
Orion EON 120 ED Apo Refractor; Starlight Xpress Trius SX9C CCD; Losmandy G-11 equatorial mount w/ Gemini 2; Orion ST80 guidescope (piggybacked); Starlight Xpress lodestar autoguider; 7x300sec exposures
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 1805 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: Many colourful stars are packed close together in this image of the globular cluster NGC 1805, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This tight grouping of thousands of stars is located near the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. The stars orbit closely to one another, like bees swarming around a hive. In the dense centre of one of these clusters, stars are 100 to 1000 times closer together than the nearest stars are to our Sun, making planetary systems around them unlikely. The striking difference in star colours is illustrated beautifully in this image, which combines two different types of light: blue stars, shining brightest in near-ultraviolet light, and red stars, illuminated in red and near-infrared. Space telescopes like Hubble can observe in the ultraviolet because they are positioned above Earth’s atmosphere, which absorbs most of this wavelength, making it inaccessible to ground-based facilities. This young globular cluster can be seen from the southern hemisphere, in the Dorado constellation, which is Portugese for dolphinfish. Usually, globular clusters contain stars which are born at the same time; however, NGC 1805 is unusual as it appears to host two different populations of stars with ages millions of years apart. Observing such clusters of stars can help astronomers understand how stars evolve, and what factors determine whether they end their lives as white dwarfs, or explode as supernovae.
The globular cluster M5, in the Serpens Caput, captured with my 90mm f/10 refractor.
Twentyfive 8 seconds shots at iso 400, stacked with DeepSkyStacker, processed with Gimp.
North is roughly up
A combination of 14 3-minute exposures for a total of 44 minutes of exposure time, ISO 800, Canon EOS Rebel XSi (modified by Hutech), 200mm f/2.8L lens @ f/2.8.
Der Kugelsternhaufen M13 im Sternbild Herkules. Unten links ist noch die Spiral-Galaxie NGC6207 mit 12.23 mag Helligkeit sichtbar.
Messier 92 (also known as M92 or NGC 6341) is a globular cluster in the constellation Hercules. It was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1777 and independently rediscovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781. M92 is at a distance of about 26,000 light-years away from Earth.
100min combined exposure, 2 min subs.
Skywatcher Explorer 190 MN Pro telescope,Skywatcher EQ6 Pro mount., Scopos 80mm guide scope. Starlight Xpress SXV M25C camera, SX Lodestar guide camera, Astronomik CLS light pollution filter. Processed and acquired using Maxim DL5, Photoshop CS2. Harrold Observatory, Harrold, Bedfordshire, UK. 15/08/09
Messier 12
Stack Size:27
Exposure: 45s
ISO: 6400
Lens: 8in SCT with f6.3 Focal Reducer
Camera: Canon Rebel T7i with Astro Mod
The Great Hercules Cluster (Messier 13, NGC 6205) is a large globular cluster located in Hercules, the Hero. The cluster is a group of more than 300,000 stars gravitationally bound to one another. The cluster is 25,100 light-years from Earth. It is faintly visible to the unaided eye during the late spring and summer months, along the western side of the "keystone" of Hercules. M13 is one of the largest globular clusters easily visible from the Northern Hemisphere.
To the lower left of the cluster is the distant galaxy NGC 6207, located about 30 million light-years away -- nearly 1,200 times further away than M13.
Technical information: This image is a composite of 10 frames with an exposure of 180 seconds each (30 minutes total). Ten flat frames and ten dark frames were then stacked and processed into the image. The image was taken with a modified Canon 5D Mark II DSLR through an Orion 190mm Maksutov-Newtonian telescope atop an Orion Atlas mount. It was taken at the Seminole State College Geneva Center (Geneva, FL) on the observing night of March 25-26, 2012.
The beautiful globular cluster M3 taken through my Celestron EdgeHD 925
You can see more of my astrophotos here on my website;
Globular Cluster in Serpens (M5)
A composite of 33 thirty second exposures thru my Meade LX200 telescope using my Meade DSI Pro III imager. The individual captures were calibrated using dark frames and flat frames and then stacked and processed using Stark Labs' nebulosity software. The telescope was guided during the exposures by an Orion 80mm Short Tube telescope with a Meade DSI Pro imager driven by Stark Lab's PHD autoguiding software. All light frames were taken through a Meade L (IR) CCD filter—no color information was captured for this object at this time. Light frames were imaged on April 26, 2009 between 1:30 AM and 2:02 AM near Ellenville, NY.
M4, a globular cluster in Scorpion constellation. You can see Sigma Sco star along with the cluster. Sigma Sco commonly known as "Al Niyat"
21 exposures @ 300 sec, ISO 800 Camera: Canon EOS 1000D Instrument: Meade 102/700mm APO Refractor, 2" Astronomik CLS FIlter
Messier 2 / M2 / NGC 7089
253 x 10 seconds (42 minutes 10 seconds); seeing 2/5, transparency 2/5
Canon T3i (stock)
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Telephoto Lens
f/5.6 ISO800
Off-brand motorized equatorial mount (similar to Orion EQ-1)
Bortle Class 6 (Charlottesville, VA)
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 1898 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: This glittering ball of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1898, which lies towards the centre of the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of our closest cosmic neighbours. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy that hosts an extremely rich population of star clusters, making it an ideal laboratory for investigating star formation. Discovered in November 1834 by British astronomer John Herschel, NGC 1898 has been scrutinised numerous times by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Today we know that globular clusters belong to the oldest known objects in the Universe and that they are relics of the first epochs of galaxy formation. While we already have a pretty good picture on the globular clusters of the Milky Way — still with many unanswered questions — our studies on globular clusters in nearby dwarf galaxies just started. The observations of NGC 1898 will help to determine if their properties are similar to the ones found in the Milky Way, or if they have different features, due to being in a different cosmic environment. This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The WFC3 observes light ranging from near-infrared to near-ultraviolet wavelengths, while the ACS explores the near-infrared to the ultraviolet.
Image Details
* Imaging Scope: Astrotelescopes 80mm ED Refractor
* Imaging Camera: Nikon D40
* Guiding Scope: William Optics 66mm Petzval Refractor
* Guiding Camera: Meade DSI-C
* Mount: Celestron CGEM
* Exposures: 8 * 3 minute lights, 4 * 3 minute darks
* ISO 800
* Aligned and Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
* Post-Processing in GIMP (contrast, saturation and unsharp mask)
* Noise reduction in Neat Image
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 1805 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: Many colourful stars are packed close together in this image of the globular cluster NGC 1805, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This tight grouping of thousands of stars is located near the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. The stars orbit closely to one another, like bees swarming around a hive. In the dense centre of one of these clusters, stars are 100 to 1000 times closer together than the nearest stars are to our Sun, making planetary systems around them unlikely. The striking difference in star colours is illustrated beautifully in this image, which combines two different types of light: blue stars, shining brightest in near-ultraviolet light, and red stars, illuminated in red and near-infrared. Space telescopes like Hubble can observe in the ultraviolet because they are positioned above Earth’s atmosphere, which absorbs most of this wavelength, making it inaccessible to ground-based facilities. This young globular cluster can be seen from the southern hemisphere, in the Dorado constellation, which is Portugese for dolphinfish. Usually, globular clusters contain stars which are born at the same time; however, NGC 1805 is unusual as it appears to host two different populations of stars with ages millions of years apart. Observing such clusters of stars can help astronomers understand how stars evolve, and what factors determine whether they end their lives as white dwarfs, or explode as supernovae.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 1898 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Original caption: This glittering ball of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1898, which lies towards the centre of the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of our closest cosmic neighbours. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy that hosts an extremely rich population of star clusters, making it an ideal laboratory for investigating star formation. Discovered in November 1834 by British astronomer John Herschel, NGC 1898 has been scrutinised numerous times by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Today we know that globular clusters belong to the oldest known objects in the Universe and that they are relics of the first epochs of galaxy formation. While we already have a pretty good picture on the globular clusters of the Milky Way — still with many unanswered questions — our studies on globular clusters in nearby dwarf galaxies just started. The observations of NGC 1898 will help to determine if their properties are similar to the ones found in the Milky Way, or if they have different features, due to being in a different cosmic environment. This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The WFC3 observes light ranging from near-infrared to near-ultraviolet wavelengths, while the ACS explores the near-infrared to the ultraviolet.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 1841.
Original caption: This densely populated group of stars is the globular cluster known as NGC 1841, which is found within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way galaxy that lies about 162 000 light-years away. Satellite galaxies are galaxies that are bound by gravity in orbits around a more massive host galaxy. We typically think of our galaxyâs nearest galactic companion as being the Andromeda Galaxy, but it would be more accurate to say that Andromeda is the nearest galaxy that is not in orbit around the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, our galaxy is orbited by tens of known satellite galaxies that are far closer than Andromeda, the largest and brightest of which is the LMC, which is easily visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere (although this is decreasingly the case thanks to light pollution). The LMC is home to many globular clusters. These celestial bodies fall somewhere between open clusters â which are much less dense and tightly bound â and small, compact galaxies. Increasingly sophisticated observations have revealed the stellar populations and other characteristics of globular clusters to be varied and complex, and it is not well understood how these tightly-packed clusters form. However, there are certain consistencies across all globular clusters: they are very stable and so are capable of lasting a long time, and can therefore be very old. This means that globular clusters often contain large numbers of very old stars, which make them something akin to celestial âfossilsâ. Just as fossils provide insight into the early development of life on Earth, globular clusters such as NGC 1841 can provide insights into very early star formation in galaxies. [Image Description: A cluster of stars. Most of the stars are very small and uniform in size, and they are notably bluish and cluster more densely together towards the centre of the image. Some appear larger in the foreground. The stars give way to a dark background at the corners.] Links Pan: Celestial fossils
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 1898 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: This glittering ball of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1898, which lies towards the centre of the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of our closest cosmic neighbours. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy that hosts an extremely rich population of star clusters, making it an ideal laboratory for investigating star formation. Discovered in November 1834 by British astronomer John Herschel, NGC 1898 has been scrutinised numerous times by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Today we know that globular clusters belong to the oldest known objects in the Universe and that they are relics of the first epochs of galaxy formation. While we already have a pretty good picture on the globular clusters of the Milky Way — still with many unanswered questions — our studies on globular clusters in nearby dwarf galaxies just started. The observations of NGC 1898 will help to determine if their properties are similar to the ones found in the Milky Way, or if they have different features, due to being in a different cosmic environment. This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The WFC3 observes light ranging from near-infrared to near-ultraviolet wavelengths, while the ACS explores the near-infrared to the ultraviolet.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster Messier 54, which orbits the nearby Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: The object shown in this beautiful Hubble image, dubbed Messier 54, could be just another globular cluster, but this dense and faint group of stars was in fact the first globular cluster found that is outside our galaxy. Discovered by the famous astronomer Charles Messier in 1778, Messier 54 belongs to a satellite of the Milky Way called the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy. Messier had no idea of the significance of his discovery at the time, and it wasn’t until over two centuries later, in 1994, that astronomers found Messier 54 to be part of the miniature galaxy and not our own. Current estimates indicate that the Sagittarius dwarf, and hence the cluster, is situated almost 90 000 light-years away — more than three times as far from the centre of our galaxy than the Solar System. Ironically, even though this globular cluster is now understood to lie outside the Milky Way, it will actually become part of it in the future. The strong gravitational pull of our galaxy is slowly engulfing the Sagittarius dwarf, which will eventually merge with the Milky Way creating one much larger galaxy. This picture is a composite created by combining images taken with the Wide Field Channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Light that passed through a yellow-orange (F606W) was coloured blue and light passing through a near-infrared filter (F814W) was coloured red. The total exposure times were 3460 s and 3560 s, respectively and the field of view is approximately 3.4 by 3.4 arcminutes.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 6441. Inverted color variant.
Almost like snowflakes, the stars of the globular cluster NGC 6441 sparkle peacefully in the night sky, about 13 000 light-years from the Milky Way’s galactic centre. Like snowflakes, the exact number of stars in such a cluster is difficult to discern. It is estimated that together the stars weigh 1.6 million times the mass of the Sun, making NGC 6441 one of the most massive and luminous globular clusters in the Milky Way. NGC 6441 is host to four pulsars that each complete a single rotation in a few milliseconds. Also hidden within this cluster is JaFu 2, a planetary nebula. Despite its name, this has little to do with planets. A phase in the evolution of intermediate-mass stars, planetary nebulae last for only a few tens of thousands of years, the blink of an eye on astronomical timescales. There are about 150 known globular clusters in the Milky Way. Globular clusters contain some of the first stars to be produced in a galaxy, but the details of their origins and evolution still elude astronomers.
Messier 15 taken using a 12.5 inch f/9 RCOS Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with an SBIG ST10XME and AO7. The image is a combination of 50 - 1 minute exposures.
More information at SEDS.org
Photo taken using a Nikon D40 attached to Skywatcher ED80 refractor. Exposure is of 14min 12s. Composite image, no dark frames. No autoguiding was used during the taking of the images. Processing was done using DeepSky Stacker and GIMP.
Globular Cluster (M15)
A composite of 31xL 15xR 14xG 14xB fifteen second exposures thru my Meade LX200 telescope using my Meade DSI Pro imager. The individual captures were calibrated using bias frames, dark frames and flat frames and then stacked and processed using Stark Labs' nebulosity and Adobe's Photoshop software. The telescope was guided during the exposures by an Orion 80mm Short Tube telescope with a Meade DSI imager driven by Stark Lab's PHD autoguiding software. All light frames were taken through a set of Meade LRGB CCD filters. Light frames were imaged on October 3, 2008 between 10:22 AM and 11:15 AM near Ellenville, NY. The total exposure was 18 minutes.
M71 is a loose globular cluster in the Sagitta Constellation. It is about 12,000 light years away in our galaxy. This picture was taken October 8, 2007 by Doug Spalding near Butler, MO. Equipment used was a CGE1100 telescope equipped with Hyperstar (F/2) with an Orion DSCI II imager. 25 images X 40 sec each. Stacked with Maxim DL essentials.
M2 captured on 01/10/2016.
Stack of 25 out of 80 10s ISO 400 shots taken with my new EOS100D at prime focus of my 100/900 ED refractor.
Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker, processed with Gimp
Taken with my Celestron EdgeHD 9.25" at prime focus with a Canon 450D. Total exposure time was 22mins.
Messier 22 - Globular Cluster in Sagittarius
One of the finer globular clusters to observe. Visible to the naked eye, good under binoculars, and a small scope resolves individual stars
Location: Tg Sedili, Malaysia
Telescope: Celestron 8" Nexstar SCT
Mount: CG-5 (German Equatorial)
Camera: Nikon D5000
Exposure: about 5 min
Iso-speed: ISO-3200
f-stop: f/6.3 (with focal reducer)
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 2419. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: Globular clusters like NGC 2419, visible in this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, are not only beautiful, but also fascinating. They are spherical groups of stars which orbit the centre of a galaxy; in the case of NGC 2419, that galaxy is the Milky Way. NGC 2419 can be found around 300 000 light-years from the Solar System, in the constellation Lynx (the Lynx). The stars populating globular clusters are very similar to one another, with similar properties such as metallicity. The similarity of these stellar doppelgängers is due to their formation early in the history of the galaxy. As the stars in a globular cluster all formed at around the same time, they tend to display reasonably homogeneous properties. It was believed that this similarity also extended to the stellar helium content; that is, it was thought that all stars in a globular cluster would contain comparable amounts of helium. However, Hubble’s observations of NGC 2419 have shown that this is not always the case. This surprising globular cluster turns out to be made up of two separate populations of red giant stars, one of which is unusually helium-rich. Other elements within the different stars in NGC 2419 vary too — nitrogen in particular. On top of this, these helium-rich stars were found to be predominantly in the centre of the globular cluster, and to be rotating. These observations have raised questions about the formation of globular clusters; did these two drastically different groups of stars form together? Or did this globular cluster come into being by a different route entirely?