Omega Centauri (NGC 5139)

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About this Image

The globular cluster NGC 5139 in Centaurus is the most massive star cluster with approx. 5 million suns. It is situated approx. 16,000 light-years away. As there are only few foreground stars situated there, most of the stars in this image belong to this huge cluster.
North is right.

Below you see a crop of the center at 40/80% size.

clic for 80% size 944 x 930 (288 kB)


Technical Details
Optics

105mm TMB refractor with flattener at f/6.5

Mount AP-400 GEM
Camera SBIG STL-11000M at -25C, internal filter wheel
Filters LRGB
Date Aug 07, 2004.
Location Hakos/Namibia
Sky Conditions mag 6.5, high transparency, temperature 10 C,
Exposure LRGB= 15:15:15:15 min (5-minute sub-exposures)
all 1x1.
Processing Image aquisition in Maxim DL 4.0; Image calibration, aligning, mean stacking, DDP and color synthesis in ImagesPlus;
Photoshop: curves, color balance, cropped;