MESSIER 79

 GLOBULAR CLUSTER IN LEPUS (THE HARE)

(Image centered at: ra 05h:24 m / dec -24º 31')

ANNOTATED IMAGE 100% RESOLUTION

December 2024, Observatorio Cielos Albertnos, Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Globular Cluster

APPARENT DIAMETER:  9.6 arc minutes

APPARENT MAGNITUDE (V): 7.7

DISTANCE: 41000 light years

IMAGE INFORMATION

INSTRUMENT: Orion Optics UK 6" Newtonian with Ultra Grade Optics working at f 4.5

CAMERA: QHY 183 Mono Camera

MOUNT: Vixen GPDX with SkyWatcher motors drive. Guided off axis with QHY 5-II Mono Camera 

FILTERS: Baader LRGB Set 

SKY CONDITIONS: Bortle 2-3 skies

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

M79 is a beautiful globular cluster at a quite unusual location in the sky: Most globulars are grouped around the Galactic center, but this is one of the few which are situated in the other hemisphere, i.e. it is beyond us for hypothetical observers in the central stellar bulge of our Milky Way galaxy. It is little over 40,000 light years from us, but about 60,000 light years from the galactic center. At this distance, M79's apparent diameter of 9.6 minutes of arc corresponds to a linear extension of about 118 light years.

M79 was found by French Mathematician Pierre Méchain on October 26, 1780, and reported his discovery to his friend and colleague, Charles Messier, who determined its position and included it in his catalog on December 17, 1780. It was first resolved into stars and recognized as a globular cluster by William Herschel in about 1784.

I had a couple of failures imaging this object from my light home backyard at bortle 8 skies. Fortunately we has some time left at bortle 3 skies, so I decided to have a try with this nice globular. The image came very nice and a great deal of distance galaxies came out labeled in the High Resolution image and grouped below

(*) text extracted from SEDS

MESSIER 79

 GLOBULAR CLUSTER IN LEPUS

ANNOTATED IMAGE AT 100% RESOLUTION