Through the yellow sands of Antares

[strongmanmike]

This time of year often sees a number of close up shots of the famous and much closer globular cluster M4
but nearby, between M4 and the bright Antares, lies a much more distant and thus smaller but lovely golden
globular cluster NGC 6144 which generally only gets captured in wide field images.

At a distance of 30,000 light years from the Sun, NGC 6144 lies well beyond the dusty regions around
the star Antares through which its light shines. This places it about three times further away than
the more famous globular cluster M4 located nearby. The light from NGC 6144 travels through a lot of
intervening dust as well as the yellow coloured nebula around the bright star Antares and this
contributes significantly to its beautiful yellow-red colouring.

This short data set, of what is a small and rather faintish globular, was collected over three nights between other projects, as a fill in image :D

For the eagle eyed, there appears to be a distant galaxy in there too...

NGC 6144 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/160817165/original) (Full Frame)

NGC 6144 up close (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/160817181/original) (100% crop)

Mike

[ourkind]

wow that's a beauty Mike, love the 100% crop!

[Placidus]

A lovely job. I prefer the whole frame - the subtle nebulosity tells the story visually. I like the way you've chosen to let the cluster's stars be blue relative to the nebula. Poetic intro.

[Slawomir]

Hi Michael,

Beautiful shot. I really like the full frame version; pleasant gentle colours and overall feeling of hope/positivity? You even got a hint of a spiral galaxy 'beneath' the nebula. :thumbsup:

[rustigsmed]

awesome work Mike, also liking the full frame more :)
Nice to see orange for a change!

Russ

[strongmanmike]

Glad you like it Carlos :)



Cheers Mike, I was thinking the core stars looked more "white" as such but this morning I see there is a very slight almost cyan halo around some of the brighter core stars making them look a tad blue..hmmm? Looks ok still I recon :shrug:...meah, might have another shot...or just leave it :), thanks for the feedback :thumbsup:



Yes saw that galaxy (?) Slaw, it's not on my planetarium star chart though, anyone have any idea? :shrug:



Yes well try as I might, Mr Magenta just couldn't bring any out on this one :bashcomp: :P

MIke

[sjastro]

Very interesting view Mike.

Steven

[RickS]

You managed to make a glob look interesting, Mike :thumbsup: :D

[marc4darkskies]

+1



+1



+1

..... That was my original feedback for today! :D

[RB]

+1 on what Marcus said.

:lol:

[strongmanmike]

+1



+1



+1



+2 :thumbsup:

Ah sigh...you're all so positive guys :love:

[IanP]

+1 on what Andrew said ... :rofl:

[cometcatcher]

+ 1 million. lol.
At first I thought to myself, that ain't M4. Oh strewth it's the little one near it. Awesome Mike!

[jase]

Very nice Mike. It would be a rather ho-hum image if it weren't for the neb wafting through the image. Adds a interesting dimension especially per your description that the cluster is at a far greater distance. Thumbs up mate.

[Rex]

Top job Mike! nicely resolved little glob.

[Regulus]

Love the full-frame of this. It's an excellent result.

Trev

[andyc]

Nice! And at least three little galaxies below the glob, that's a fair place to see galaxies...

[alpal]

Top photo Mike,
It's hard to find a better one than that unless you go for Hubble.

cheers
Allan

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Kevin, yeah, it even has a similar core structure to M4



Thansk Jase, yeah, I wouldn't have bothered with the image had the yellow Antares nebulosity not been in the frame



Thanks Rex :thumbsup:



Glad you like it Trevor :)



Yes, you are quite right Andy, I see all three now :thumbsup:



Cheers Al, NGC 6144 isn't imaged on its own very often so that's probably why :)

Mike

[Rod771]

Very cool, Mike! Something different, very enjoyable!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rod, it was a bit of a "Umm? hmmm? what shall I do..?" type image but I'm quite happy with how it came out :)

Mike

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Good image of NGC 6144 Mike!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Resolved quite well and good to see the colours you've processed.
Makes me feel vindicated the way I processed my wider shot of Antares field.

http://s1172.photobucket.com/user/jtilbrook/media/AntaresA2_zpsvw8tyxbf.jpg.html

Cheers,

Justin.

[Octane]

Quite enjoyed hunting for the faint fuzzies in the background. :)

H

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Justin

Your wide shot looks great!, Antares is so dominant, looks cool.




Well, not that many but a few :thumbsup:

Cheers H

Mike

[gregbradley]

Been away. Nice shot Mike. Hard to get it to look good with all that yellow from Antares but I think you've done well there.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

He he, I think "that's" what makes it look good :lol:..otherwise would just be a small glob in the middle of nowhere :sadeyes:

:thumbsup:

Mike

[Leonardo70]

Wonderful mike ... never seen framed like this !

All the best,
Leo

[SkyViking]

That's really beautiful Mike. Finally a close-up image of this overlooked globular :)
The golden haze in the foreground makes it really unique and I like the blues of the globular too - it may be due to Blue Stragglers, although I don't know how prominent they are in NGC 6144.

Oh, and +1! :D

[strongmanmike]

Cheers leo :thumbsup:



Thanks Rolf :thumbsup:...errr, pardon my Palilalia but I want to know what you are processing!!! :mad2:

:lol:

[Shiraz]

gosh that is an impressive image Mike. up there with your best in some ways I reckon.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks a lot Ray :) I was pretty happy with it too, I was particularly happy with the quality of the star images on this one :thumbsup:

Mike