Obscure globular Terzan 9

[SkyViking]

Hi All, it has been cloudy here in Auckland lately but on Sunday it was a brilliantly clear moonless night so I got a chance to do another test run of the new Serrurier truss scope. I primarily wanted to test if I could prevent dew on the secondary mirror with a large 120mm fan mounted on the side of the secondary cage. I have noticed varying amounts of dew on the secondary on every single occasion since converting to the open truss tube design, so I knew some form of dew prevention was needed. I was very happy to conclude that the experiment was a success with absolutely no dew in sight when I packed up around midnight :D

Anyway, while keeping an eye out for any dew I imaged Terzan 9 which is a heavily obscured globular cluster in Sagittarius. The cluster actually lies within the Milky Way's central bulge at a distance of 16,000 light years. The magnitude is listed as 16.00.
I also noticed that the position given by Starry Night was absolutely spot on. Some of the positions for these obscure globulars are unfortunately incorrect in various catalogues.

It was unusually windy on the night so I had to keep the exposures a bit shorter than I normally do, otherwise I could see I would loose over half of the frames due to the strong gusts that kept coming. Still I think I got a decent image of this cluster, and again the stars definitely appear tighter than with my old scope. I used to achieve a resolution just about equal to the DSS images, but here the resolution is quite a bit higher.

The image is available here: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/135964114/original

Image details:
62 x 10 s + 116 x 15s
26/06/2011
No filters, no guiding

Hope you enjoy. All comments and critique is welcome.

Regards,
Rolf

[Ross G]

Looks good Rolf.

Another object I did not know existed.

Thank you.

Ross.

[renormalised]

Another great image, Rolf. You really get the most out of that little webcam:)

This GC would probably do well with an IR filter, like one of Astrodon's, considering it's embedded in the bulge with all that dust and such between us and it.

[Dennis]

Hi Rolf

Another difficult target nicely captured. The results show very nicely formed stars from a nicely crafted ‘scope!

Cheers

Dennis

[SkyViking]

Thanks Ross, glad you liked it :)


Thank you Carl :) Yes it is heavily obscured but does shine a bit brighter in the IR. I imaged this without any filters so any IR light that my chip can pick up would have been included in the data. It would certainly be interesting to see an IR-only view.


Thank you Dennis :) Yes I'm very happy with the performance of my new scope. It does seem crisper now than before, something that is very handy when hunting down these things.

[Stevec35]

Nicely done Rolf - a good catch. These faint globulars are a particular favourite of mine.

Cheers

Steve

[John Hothersall]

This is a challenge, I had a go at Palomar2 in Auriga back in the UK but mag16 is very faint indeed and they are so faint and orange. Great result.

John.

[SkyViking]

Thank you Steve :) They are rather interesting indeed.


Thanks John :) It is very faint but I enjoy the challenge. I also like the reddish colour these obscured globulars have, you can really sense the amount of dust they are hiding behind!
I'm working on an image of Palomar 6 at the moment, but I need some more data I think. Waiting for the clouds to clear....