M22 Stars Galore!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Last night wasn't the best conditions, a strong breeze, just enough forming and passing cloud (all night) to reek havoc, particularly with the guide star (heard the lost guide star alarm go off plenty of times through the night ) and to top it off, the seeing was poor all night too ...oh well, I guess I did have three good nights up to this, so can't complain.

So I decided to image something bright and that at least appeared to be sitting in a lasting cloud hole too.

The literature seems to vary but with a VMag of about 5.2, M22 appears to be the skies 3rd brightest glob after Omega Cen and 47 Tuc and it sits in a rich Milky Way star field, so makes for a fine scene of thousands of stars.

The data wasn't the best due to the conditions but I did my best

M22 lost in the stars

Planetary Nebula GJJC1 deep in M22

Mike

[multiweb (Marc)]

Really nicely resolved. Great star colours.

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Very nice Mike, great colours and you've got plenty of Blue Stragglers there

You're right about M22 being the 3rd brigtest. Here is a list of the ten brightest globulars according to the Catalog of Parameters for Milky Way Globular Clusters:

NGC 5139 (Omega Cen): 3.68
NGC 104 (47 Tuc): 3.95
NGC 6656 (M22): 5.1
NGC 6752: 5.4
NGC 6121 (M4): 5.63
NGC 5904 (M5): 5.65
NGC 6397: 5.73
NGC 6205 (M13): 5.78
NGC 5272 (M3): 6.19

[Somnium (Aidan)]

really nice image, what were your sub lengths? at 20 mins for the RGB images you wouldn't have stacked many

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Beautifully processed Mike.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Really nicely resolved. Great star colours.

I had to use some processing to get any respectable resolution which is not ideal, had I collected the data on Friday night the image would have been better, globs are unforgiving of wild seeing and/or tracking error.

Originally Posted by SkyViking

Very nice Mike, great colours and you've got plenty of Blue Stragglers there

You're right about M22 being the 3rd brigtest. Here is a list of the ten brightest globulars according to the Catalog of Parameters for Milky Way Globular Clusters:

NGC 5139 (Omega Cen): 3.68
NGC 104 (47 Tuc): 3.95
NGC 6656 (M22): 5.1
NGC 6752: 5.4
NGC 6121 (M4): 5.63
NGC 5904 (M5): 5.65
NGC 6397: 5.73
NGC 6205 (M13): 5.78
NGC 5272 (M3): 6.19

Cheers Rolo and yes, but different places list different mags for 3rd through about 7th place...?

Originally Posted by Somnium

really nice image, what were your sub lengths? at 20 mins for the RGB images you wouldn't have stacked many

Cheers Aidan, just 2min subs on this one

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Beautifully processed Mike.

Thanks JJJ...one day I will get to Atacama de Duckadang

Mike

[John K]

That's an outstanding image Mike - did not realise that M22 was such a great object - you have done it justice indeed my friend!

Cheers,

John K.

[IanP]

Very nice Mike,
Nothing to criticize on both data and processing …

[Andy01 (Andy)]

That's really pretty, great colours

[PRejto (Peter)]

Beautiful Mike! Gotta love that Trius.

Peter

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

sure is a lot of stars, for some reason I thought ngc 6752 was third brightest, perhaps that's 'biggest (apparent)' rather than brightest.

awesome resolution and colour.

cheers

rusty

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Cheers John, Ian, Andy, Pete and Russell

While it looks amazing embedded within the rich star cloud, I would love to see this cluster with out the surrounding star field, you know, like just hanging out in clear space like 47 Tuc...?

Just wish the seeing had been better...

Mike

[Regulus (Trevor)]

Really nice image Mike; it's such a 'jewel-box' of colours. A pleasure to look at mate.

Trev

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Regulus

Really nice image Mike; it's such a 'jewel-box' of colours. A pleasure to look at mate.

Trev

Great to hear Trev ...just a quickie snap shot really, love doing them, more instant gratification

Mike

[troypiggo (Troy)]

I'd like to see a starless version of this. Oh, wait...

[DJT (David)]

Love those Globs and this is a great example of one. A very beautiful image

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Originally Posted by troypiggo

I'd like to see a starless version of this. Oh, wait...

You're such a wag.

[Tony_ (Tony)]

Beautiful image Mike!

There is a PN in M22 - GJJC1.
I'm not sure if it is visible in your image but maybe??
There is a blue dot in the right location.


Tony.

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Wow, that's a lot of stars...awesome image Mike

On a second thought, I am not sure if anyone on Earth is capable of fully comprehending what this image shows.

[Atmos (Colin)]

Originally Posted by Slawomir

Wow, that's a lot of stars...awesome image Mike

On a second thought, I am not sure if anyone on Earth is capable of fully comprehending what this image shows.

That's why we create HR Diagrams

Very nice shot there Mike, especially for a night of not so great seeing!