October 2, 2016

NGC 7006, a Far-out Globular (September 2016)


NGC 7006, in the constellation Delphinus, is not even in our galaxy, though it is gravitationally bound to it.  The globular cluster of stars is about 135,000 light years away, in the galactic halo.  In this image, you can see several very distant galaxies behind the cluster.  Many nearer stars appear around the cluster in the image but are actually relatively near to us, in front of it.

I have seen this globular in a 4" refractor from very dark skies, and just barely with my 8" f/5 Newtonian from my light-polluted backyard.  With no telescope have I resolved any stars in it visually.  But here, with the camera, I can resolve many individual stars.  This image is just 10x240" through an Astronomik CLS filter and SXVF-H9 camera through the CFF 290 Classical Cassegrain.

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