Blue Stragglers in Messier 30

[AusGuy]

As you probably already know, M30 is a core-collapse globular cluster located in Capricornus. At nearly -23 degrees south of the celestial equator it is readily seen here in the southern hemisphere. But it is not too far south to be invisible to northerners, as is evidenced by being included in the Messier catalogue. For EAA purposes it is nice to be able to show viewers (or at least it will be when this Covid-19 pandemic is over) that it has a sprinkling of intense blue stars that can easily be seen on-screen. And that should lead to a discussion of the apparently anomalous appearance of a great many young blue O and B stars in an ancient star cluster that one would have expected by now to contain only old red M and K stars. The reason is well documented in many excellent articles on the Internet.

ZWO ASI294MC Pro cooled to -10C; SkyWatcher PDS 150; SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro; Baader MPCC.

SharpCap livestack - 4 x 30 seconds at 380 gain. Minor adjustments in Photoshop.

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by AusGuy
typo

[Mike JW]

Nice to see it. Visually even in a big Dob it is a poor view due to its low DEC, for us in GB.  As you indicate globulars are fascinating objects and using colour in your image highlights the blue stars. Mike

[Martin Meredith]

Thanks for posting this image. It's one of the few Messier's I've not yet observed (not entirely sure why as it is gets to a healthy 24 degrees here in Northern Spain. And now I'm intrigued to find out the back-story of the young stars....

I don't have an image to share, but I do have a fake image I created from the GAIA data (down to mag 21) which clearly shows the presence of blue-ish stars (as well as a few anomalous colors that I take full responsibility for!).

Martin