The Great Pegasus Globular Star Cluster
I often wonder what it would be like on a planet inside this cluster? Would there be thousands of bright stars in the sky?
Would the sky be dark? This is what makes astronomy great..it makes you think and imagine beyond our everyday lives.
Messier 15 or M15 is a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus, 33,000 light years(10kPC) from Earth.
It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 and included in Charles Messier’s catalogue of comet-like objects in 1764. At an estimated 13.2 billion years old, it is one of the oldest and densest known globular clusters.
It is so massive and is about 176 Light years in diameter, and contains over 100,000 stars, the central core region contains over 30,000 star and not even the Hubble could resolve the central region to see what is at the center, but something at the center is gravitationally keeping them so tightly packed in.
Another cool fact is that there is a planetary nebula in there as well known as Pease 1, and M15 was the first Globular to be discovered with a Planetary Nebulae hiding within it. M15 spans about 18 arc minutes in diameter in my photo.
I captured this image using my Old Orange Tube C8 SCT Telescope, QHY183C Cooled Cmos Camera, Bisque MyT Mount, 60 minute exposure, captured on 11-19-2020 from my backyard
Observatory in Dayton, Ohio.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
