Djorg 2 (Palomar 9), GC in Sagg

[Weltevreden SA]

I'm pretty sure I can confirm having spotted Djorg 2 (aka Pal 9) over the past three nights of good skies. It's near the OC NGC 6520 and adjacent B86 Ink Spot collapsing molecular cloud, and in the rich field of the Teapot 'steam plume'. Djorg 2 is confusingly listed as visual 9.9 and 6' dia on some lists and mag 12.6 plus a highly improbable 12' dia on others. It shows up immediately in my 200mm scope as an extended fuzzball of about 4' dia with no obvious central concentration. A close inspection reveals a nearby small arrow-like group of four mag 12.5 stars which mimic the M73 asterism in Cap, plus a nice sprinkle of <mag 13 field stars. It is not identified on the attached chart, but its visual field corresponds to the small group of mag 12 stars directly below the letters 'STN40' (a double star) on the chart, and a small fuzzy ball right of the Ink Spot on the WikiSky clip. A literature search unearths only Djorgovski's original 1983 discover paper and a follow-up in 1987 by Buonanno et al. Can any IIS member give it a shot and confirm? =Dana in SA

[Rob_K]

Nice work Dana. You should be able to see it OK in a 200mm. I've seen it in dark skies through a 4.5" but it is fairly obscured in the starfield. To me it took a bit of teasing out and was a very faint, very small glow, certainly less than the 4' diameter you were seeing. Maybe 2' or so from memory was all I was able to get but I was pretty happy to see that. :thumbsup:

Cheers -

[mental4astro]

Wow, one year ago this thread was started. I saw it then, but couldn't comment as I hadn't seen it, back then.

But, YES! I've seen it! Saw it at July's Astrofest with my 17.5".

I was doing a sketch of the dark nebula B86 that sits very close to it (the dark nebula in the photo in the original post). Fellow IISer Oleg had his Sky Safari and showed me this area AFTER I completed the sketch. A quick scan of the noted area and I spotted it straight away - not the easiest bugger to pick out, and it takes a bit of doing to see it if you are not sure what to look for. Took Oleg a bit of searching (and a few expletives directed at me in disbelief that I had seen it... :lol:), but he spotted it too.

It is just like it appears in the photo - a little ball of stars among the mass of stars that form the Cloud of Sagittarius. I believe I could begin to resolve it too.

I'm keen to go back to this GC using smaller apertures. It is not the dimmest GC, being mag 9.8, but it takes some doing to pick out from the background 'noise'. If I was aware of Djorg 2 before starting the sketch I would have changed the arrangement of the sketch of B86 to include it - the entire scene is spectacular, with the dark nebula, bright open cluster, mass of stars from the Cloud of Sagittarius, and the highly obscured GC. Gorgeous.

Mental.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Hey there, Alex and Rob and Co.

Anyone heard from Dana (WeltevredenSA) lately?

I know that this year he had a couple of months of very poor health (he is a rather old guy), and he then wrote me an email, but since then all has gone quiet at his end. (we have had an ongoing correspondence, mainly regarding unusual types of star clusters such as young globulars, extended clusters, nuclear star clusters)

I hope that he is still OK, as he is one of our most outstanding IIS contributors; a superb observer and a brilliant mind.

cheers,
Robert Lang alias Mad Galaxy Man

[madbadgalaxyman]

Yeah, I am worried about Dana. I hope he hasn't taken that final "flight" upwards in the direction of his beloved globular clusters.

[SteveG]

Dana last posted a couple of weeks ago on Cloudynights forum, though he has been less active there recently.