Silver Nugget Cluster

[TrevorW]

NGC 6441 is a globular cluster in the southern constellation of Scorpius. also known as the Silver Nugget Cluster 38000 ly from Earth. It’s one of the most massive ones in the Milky Way, and the stars in it have a combined mass of 1.6 million solar masses. The bright star next to it is not even close to the cluster being Fuyua at 125 ly. It was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on May 13, 1826, who described it as "a small, well-defined rather bright nebula, about 20″ in diameter". In a very rich area of stars, as Dave said "i can see stars"
Magnitude: 7.2
Radius: 4.8
Constellation: Scorpius
Estimated age: 13−13.7 Gyr
Equipment:
GSO 10" f/8 Truss RC Losmandy G11 Mount guided PHD2 Orion Starshoot on 60mm guide scope
QHY 268c one shot colour camera, -15c, . Gain 57 Offset 30, NINA capture software, with Optolong L extreme filter, PHD2 guiding
Time/Locale:
3hrs35min 114 frames exposure in btween 1min and 3min long captured 30/06/2023 Bortle 5 sky between 7:00 and 11:30pm, Najm Nazm Observatory Kelmscott WA, very cold clear night high humidity, with moon at 88%
Processing: DSS, PS, PS6

[Retrograde]

Nice job. :thumbsup:

That's a very interesting object Trevor, which I only recently became aware of when doing this widefield: Astrobin Scorpius Milky Way (https://www.astrobin.com/ldbf6d/B/) where it can be seen at bottom-right.

In my image it looks like a double star but it wasn't listed as one on the star maps. I initially thought my mosaic had a stitching problem but it was just this compact cluster which in fact is massive but at a great distance.

[TrevorW]

Thanks Pete :)