Hi, This is M92, an often overlooked, although hardly less spectacular, globular cluster in the constellation Hercules. It's mostly overshadowed by the Great Hercules Cluster, M13. But this is a beautiful globular in its own right. Next time you're out hunting for M13, take a small detour to look at M92, you'll not be disappointed. My image of M92 is the result of 3.25 hours of image integration. I used a TEC 180FL scope reduced to F5 with an Astro-Physics quad-TCC reducer/corrector with an ASI2600MC one shot color camera. I used an Astro-Physics 1100GTO mount with encoders and instead of guiding I created a quick sky model.
Wow. I was just making an analogy tonight to a group of people about the sky looking like diamonds strewn over black velvet (I make this as a former jeweler). Here we have some champagne diamonds in the mix! Thanks for sharing Terri. Would I be able to see this through my 80mm scope, or is it considerably smaller than the great globular?
@terri Beautiful image, Terri! I've been looking at several globular clusters in my new 10" dob but have only imaged M3 so far this year. (I just haven't processed it yet because I got VERY lazy!) Hopefully I'll have it up soon. I'll have to put M92 on my visual obs list.
Great image!
Greg
Wow. I was just making an analogy tonight to a group of people about the sky looking like diamonds strewn over black velvet (I make this as a former jeweler). Here we have some champagne diamonds in the mix! Thanks for sharing Terri. Would I be able to see this through my 80mm scope, or is it considerably smaller than the great globular?
Thank you Maura, I think you'd see it through the 80mm as a colorless puff ball. That's the case for most globulars and optics less than 8". Around 8" you can resolve some of the brighter stars but most globulars have stars that start around mag 12 and get dimmer... the reason we see them is the integration of 100's of thousands of stars. None of my refractors resolve globulars very much... the 6 and 7" just a little. Even an 8" resolves only a small number of stars. They are some of my favorite objects.
Terri
@terri Beautiful image, Terri! I've been looking at several globular clusters in my new 10" dob but have only imaged M3 so far this year. (I just haven't processed it yet because I got VERY lazy!) Hopefully I'll have it up soon. I'll have to put M92 on my visual obs list.
Great image!
Greg
Thanks Greg, I love looking at globulars but most of the time I can't resolve much of their cores. You need big scopes for that. But they're beautiful and beautiful to image. Great job on yours, it's resolved beautifully.
Nicely done Terri. The star colors came out well, lots of brighter orangish stars and even more faint blue ones.
I spotted what looks like a planetary nebula. About 1/4 way from the left there is a bright star with a galaxy just to its upper right, the possible planetary is a blue smudge a little above them. Doesn't show up on Starry Night Pro software. Not even the brightest galaxy shows up.
Paul
@terri I was just out looking through the 10" dob and was looking at M13 with a TV 8mm Ethos. Wow! I could resolve so much more detail than I thought I could. I'm sure it will look beautiful through your big refractor.
Greg
Nicely done Terri. The star colors came out well, lots of brighter orangish stars and even more faint blue ones.
I spotted what looks like a planetary nebula. About 1/4 way from the left there is a bright star with a galaxy just to its upper right, the possible planetary is a blue smudge a little above them. Doesn't show up on Starry Night Pro software. Not even the brightest galaxy shows up.
Paul
Thanks Paul, it was one of my better efforts on a globular. I haven't typically done them very well. I tried to find it but haven't hunted it down yet. My sky safari pro picks out tons of items in there, mostly galaxies.
@terri I wonder if you upload your image to Astrobin if you can see what it is when it annotates your image, Terri.
Greg
@greg-erianne They don't typically show a whole lot. I always see many more objects than Astrobin detects. I also did an astrometry.net plate solve but it didn't come back with much either besides IC4645 which is one of the galaxies, and not the most conspicuous either, and not the spot Paul is referring to.
@terri I tried Simbad but it didn't pull up anything for the blue smudge (as long as I'm looking at the right one).
Greg
