August 27, 2022

M15 (July 2022)

M15 is one of our oldest globular clusters.  It has over 100,000 stars.  Because it is only 35,700 light years away, it is bright.  I can see many individual stars in the cluster with my 6" telescope from my backyard. M15's core is densely packed; even the image seems to show the cluster growing denser toward the center of the cluster, though that's a little deceptive as M15 is 175 light years across!  I doubt my little image would show true density (relative to other clusters) from this far away.  Anyway, this is just 8x180" with the Atik 460 EXC through the 203mm Synta ONTC Newtonian at f/4.9 and an Astronomik CLS filter.

August 18, 2022

NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula (July 2022)


 

This is not my first Crescent, but I wanted to see what I could get with an OSC and light pollution filter.  This is 15x1200" with the Atik 460EXC, Synta ONTC 203mm Newtonian at f/4.9, and the Astronomik CLS filter.