Antilhue - Chile

NGC 5139
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Image Data

Designation Omega Centauri, NGC 5139,  Bennett 61,  Best 18,  Caldwell 80
Object type Globular cluster
Coordinates 13 h 27 min    - 47° 29'    Centaurus  (Cen)
Description NGC 5139 is a prime southern hemisphere showpiece.  At mag 3.7, it was recorded by Ptolemy as a star and Bayer gave it the stellar denomination 'omega'.  Finally, it was Edmund Halley who discovered this wonderful cluster in 1677.  Outliers reach 1 full degree in diameter, but the main region reaches about 40 arcminutes across,  filling the horizontal axis of this image.  An unforgettable sight in any size telescope.

Click on the image for a higher resolution version.  The field of view is  37 x 25 arcminutes with north towards the top.

Exposure LRGB 60:20:20:20 min @ -25°C ;  all exposures 4 min unbinned
Camera SBIG STL-11000 with Astronomik Type 2 filterset  -  selfguided
Optics RCOS 14.5" Ritchey-Chrétien @ f/9 (prime focus)
Mount Astro-Physics AP1200GTO
Software MaxIm DL/CCD,  Registar,  PixInsight V.1,  Adobe Photoshop CS
Location - Date - Time San Esteban (Chile) - 07Jun2005 @ 01:00 UTC
Conditions Transparency 8-9/10,  Seeing 8/10, Temperature  + 8°C