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| M80, A Globular Cluster, (NGC6093) cropped and downsized to fit screen, click on image above for full frame full resolution image |
| M80 is fairly bright as an 8th magnitude globular. Although it's not very conspicuous, it can be fairly easily found by looking in the constellation of Scorpius directly north of Antares. Its 10' visual diameter, at a distance of 32,600 light years, corresponds to about 95 light years of actual diameter. This is a fairly large stellar swarm containing several hundred thousand stars. It is one of the densest globulars in our Milky Way Galaxy. M80 contains a large number of so-called "Blue Stragglers" in its core, about twice as many as any other globular studied so far. The reason is very probably that these stars lost their cooler envelopes in close encounters with other stars. Their large number in M80 indicates an exceptionally high stellar collision rate in the core of this globular cluster. |
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10"
F6.3 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope, (1600mm F.L.) Modified Canon
300D camera with a Baader IR-UV filter and coma corrector, placed at the scopes prime focus |