Clouds suddenly cleared early last night so into some more imaging. These are 2 globulars in the milky way. As you can see they are surrounded by more than a few stars.
5x10 mins ISO200. uv/ir filter. Baader MPCC coma corrector, 10 inch f5.6 newtonian, Hutech modded 350d.
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the stars in our galaxy...
Ah.. those imortal words etched in my memory from days home sick from school, when they came on the TV my heart would sink and it was time for my afternoon nap...
Scott, this is an extraordinary image of an extraordinary part of the sky!
(btw, why does extraordinary have this meaning when it is spelt 'extra ordinary' - seems a bit opposite to me!)
GaryH, your comment about seeing so much through the interstellar medium was quite reasonable, however this is a special field often referred to Baade's Window. It is thought to be a clearing in the ISM allowing us to glimpse as far as the Galactic Core (some 30,000ly). Unfortunately, being some 4 degrees from the galactic centre we only get to within about 1,800ly (still close!)
I wrote a brief article on this for the 2009 yearbook and if you want to know just how great Scott's image is, compare it to David Malin's image of the same field (p. 63). I think Scott's image is every bit as good - perhaps better!
I first came across this for I love looking for double deep sky objects. A couple of month's ago I got to look at this field through my recently acquired 16" LB. The background was distinctly mottled giving a hint at this treasure trove. For those who would like to go after this field it is easy to find. Just out of the fov is the naked eye, spout star of the teapot of Sagittarius, Gamma Sgr. THe globulars and this star fit in a low power ep easily.
NGC 6522 is 22.2 kly away and NGC 6528 is 22.8 kly. Sgr A* is 25.9 kly away.
Here is David Malin's image of Baade's window. The above two globulars are near the center of the image. http://www.astronet.ru/db/xware/msg/1181380
"Sagittarius A* (pronounced "A-star", standard abbreviation Sgr A*) is a bright and very compact source of radio emission at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, part of a larger astronomical feature at that location (Sagittarius A). Sagittarius A* is most likely to be the location of a supermassive black hole, as is hypothesized to be at the centers of many spiral and elliptical galaxies." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*
The center of the milky way is about a third of the way from M6 to M8. To be more precise it is 3.5 deg from M6 in pa 20.
The attached image shows M6 top right and the galactic center lower left.
It is cut from Scott's image at: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ighlight=milky
