Messier 56

[petevasey]

I first imaged the ancient globular cluster Messier 56 in 2003. But have never revisited it until now! Last night (4th May) was beautifully clear, but running out of dark sky for the year. Nevertheless although at first there was a 22% crescent Moon it was well separated from M56 and there was plenty of Astronomical twilight either side of full darkness. So I decided to image it. In Lyra, so rising in the East at this time of the year. Because of the clear air the usual light pollution in my Eastern sky was very low, but the 'seeing' was poor, so despite a bright guide star allowing me to operate the SX AO unit at 0.1 second frames, resolution was limited. I will certainly try to revisit the target in early Autumn when it will be much higher in the sky. QSI 683 on RC10. Luminance 14 x 5 minutes, RGB each 5 x 5 minutes, all binned 2x2. To use a suitable guide star, the cluster appeared towards the bottom of the vertical image frame, so it has been cropped accordingly.  But it is full size.

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by petevasey