Third set from the telescope
Conditions were almost ideal - clear skies, no moon, and a near-perfect polar alignment. Aside from the light spilling from next door, it was as dark as it gets in my backyard. Of course, we’re now forecast to have a week of rain.
All these images were processed with Siril, then fed into Affinity Photo for final tweaks and editing.
I was at a bit of a loss as to what to image, and then a helpful post on the ASV’s Facebook page mentioned a series of stellar clusters. The first on the list being Omega Centauri. Why not??
According to Wikipedia, Omega Centauri (ω Cen, NGC 5139, or Caldwell 80) is a globular cluster in the constellation of Centaurus that was first identified as a non-stellar object by Edmond Halley in 1677. Located at a distance of 17,090 light-years, it is the largest-known globular cluster in the Milky Way at a diameter of roughly 150 light-years. It is estimated to contain approximately 10 million stars, and a total mass equivalent to 4 million solar masses, making it the most massive-known globular cluster in the Milky Way.
Omega Centauri
IC 2602, generally known as the Southern Pleiades or Theta Carinae Cluster, is an open cluster in the constellation Carina that was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751 from South Africa. Easily seen with the naked eye, this cluster is one of the closest to us, whose distance is about 547 light-years away from Earth.
IC2602 - Southern Pleiades
Eta Carinae is a stellar system containing at least two stars with a combined luminosity greater than five million times that of the Sun, located around 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Previously a 4th-magnitude star, it brightened in 1837 to become brighter than Rigel, marking the start of its so-called “Great Eruption”. It became the second-brightest star in the sky between 11 and 14 March 1843 before fading well below naked eye visibility after 1856. In a smaller eruption, it reached 6th magnitude in 1892 before fading again. It has brightened consistently since about 1940, becoming brighter than magnitude 4.5 by 2014.
