M15 – Globular Star Cluster
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Sunday night was a great clear night. The crescent moon set early and the clouds stayed away until about 1:00 AM. I used my auto-guider for the first time since setting up the new observatory and it worked out pretty well. I was able to guide an object and keep it centered for well over an hour. I was averaging a little less than a two arc second error rate which should be improved when I perfect my polar alignment.
Here is my first picture of Messier 15, a globular star cluster hidden in the constellation Pegasus. This image is the result of 3×5 minute exposures and 1×1 minute exposure. I manually stacked the frames in Photoshop.
For comparison sake, here is a picture of M15 from the Hubble telescope. Its a little nicer than my first attempt, but considering my rig didn’t cost $1,500,000,000 to setup, I think I did alright.
November 23rd, 2009 on 11:09 pm
That’s very impressive. I wonder what sort of planets form around things like that. Are the stars close enough that their planets would wander off from their parent star and swirl around another star for a while before wandering off to the next star and the next and the next…..? And what sort of critters do you suppose would arise on worlds like that?
November 24th, 2009 on 1:02 pm
Man this image is fantastic! I wonder, is that where the Monoliths come from?