M2 is a globular star cluster in Aquarius. It is classified as type II meaning it is quite compact. It is thought to be about 37,500 light-years distant. It has a very elongated orbit. Just how elongated is still up for debate but the latest figures say it can go out over 170,000 light-years and get 165,000 light-years from the galactic plane. It may get within 23,500 light-years of the galaxy's core. My image was taken when I first was getting started in digital imaging then on a poor night. I tried reprocessing it but the data was poor as was the night so this is another for the reshoot list that likely won't happen.
It was first seen by Jean-Dominique Maraldi on September 11, 1746. Messier appears to have independently discovered it September 11, 1760, 4 years before he started to record such objects as a project. Neither saw its stars. That had to wait for William Herschel's much larger telescope. Until then it was just a nebula without stars and thus rather comet-like except it didn't move from night tonight as a comet would.
14" LX200R @ f/10, LRGB=3x15', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
M2LRGB3X5R1.JPG
| M3 is a globular star cluster in Canes Venatici. It is considered one of the showpiece globular star clusters. At about 34 thousand light-years from us and 40 thousand light-years from the galaxy's core, it is a rather distant one to be so famous. It contains a large number of variable (mostly RR Lyrae) stars, over 200. The cluster is about 200 light-years across in deep images and contains some half million stars. The cluster is quite blue due to the large number of "Blue Stragglers" that it contains. It is thought that most globular clusters formed at about the same time as our galaxy, 10 to 11 billion years ago, and that its stars all formed at that time. Yet these "Blue Stragglers" appear to be young stars as stars of their color would live very short lives compared to the age of the cluster. There are several explanations of how these come to be. One is the merger of two or more stars, another is one star stripping gas from another raising its mass enough to turn it blue, still, another says the outer shell of a helium burning star has been stripped away exposing the super hot blue core. Maybe all are involved. With such closely packed stars, it is very difficult to get a good spectrum of these stars which would help to understand this issue.
While Messier had discovered M1 and M2 earlier they'd been first seen by others. M3 is the first in his list that he appears to have discovered before anyone else. He found it on May 3, 1764. As with his globular discoveries, he saw it as a nebula without stars. William Herschel was the first to resolve it, and others, into stars thanks to his telescope with much better light grasp. It appears this object is the one that triggered his desire to hunt down these comet-like objects. While M1 and 2 were logged years before this was the first of 18 he found that year.
See: http://messier.seds.org/m/m003.html for more on this object.
14" LX200R @ f/10. L=4x10' RGB=2x10' STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
M3L11X5RGB2X10R1.JPG
| M5 is a great globular cluster in Serpens Caput though you'd not know it from my data starved image. Notes indicate clouds were a major issue though so was my ignorance on how to take a globular cluster back in early 2007. To my eye in my 10" scope, it always resembled a crab with an oblong body and star streams forming the legs and claws. None of that is seen in any image I've seen, however. Some sources put its age at nearly the age of the universe, about 13 billion years. Since most put the age of our galaxy as younger than this either the globular isn't as old as thought or it was captured when we tore apart and ate some other even older but smaller galaxy. I vote that it's not quite as old as the 13 billion years often ascribed to the globular. The cluster is about 24,500 light-years distant. It contains an unusually large number of variable stars, at least 105 are known most of the RR Lyra type.
The cluster was first seen by Gottfried Kirch and his wife Maria Margarethe while observing a comet on May 5, 1702. They described it as a "nebulous star". Messier made an independent discovery on May 23, 1764 describing it as: "(A) Beautiful Nebula discovered between the Balance (Libra) and the Serpent, near the star in the Serpent, of 6th magnitude, which is the 5th according to the Catalog of Flamsteed (5 Ser): It doesn't contain any star; it is round, and one sees it very well, in a fine sky with an ordinary refractor of 1-foot". Note that in those days longer refractors had less color so were better than short ones. Aperture, due to the difficulty of getting good glass wasn't really recognized as important in refractors of the time. Later on March 11, 1769 he used "... a good Gregorian telescope of 30 pouces, which magnified 104 times, and I have ensured that it doesn't contain any star." That may not have been such a good telescope by today's standards though what is a 30 pouces telescope? I think it means a scope of about 30 inches in length so again aperture isn't known. (I'm relying on my over half-century old high school French which may be very wrong.)
As mentioned this is a data-starved image of only 7 minutes exposure time through clouds so severely limited. Notes indicate that but for one L and one color frame, all were taken different nights trying to get something through the clouds. Still, it shows more than is seen visually, at least in any telescope I own.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=7x1' RGB=3x1", STL-11000XM, Paramount ME
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M5L7X1_MLR_RGB3X1.jpg
| M10 is a rather large, in angular size, globular in Ophiuchus about 14,300 light-years from us and about 16,000 light years from the center of the galaxy. Most globulars are rather well endowed with variable stars. Not M-10, it has only 3. While Messier didn't discover many of the entries to his catalog he did discover this one on May 29, 1764. He described it as a "Nebula without stars, very pale." William Herschel was the first to see its true nature as being composed of stars saying "beautiful cluster of extremely compressed stars".
Most Messier globulars are so bright in the core I can't use my standard 10 minute luminance exposure without burning in the core. I was surprised to find that while it appears rather bright to the eye I was still able to use 10 minute luminance exposures. In fact, I'd not intended to use a luminance channel, just a bunch (6 each) of RGB exposures. Unfortunately, my horrid 2012 weather wiped most of those out leaving me with too few. So after several nights of trying I did finally grab 4 luminance frames. Likely part of the reason I could use 10 minute frames was the very poor transparency that night.
There are a couple asteroids in the image. The most obvious is on the left a bit below the centerline. It is (119503) 2001 UR124 at an estimated magnitude of 18.2. Normally such a bright asteroid would really stand out. It is rather dim here due to the poor transparency. The other one is difficult to see. It is near the bottom a bit left of centerline. The left end of the trail is lost in a rather dim star at the apex of 5 dim stars in the pattern of the ^ symbol. It is (69357) 1994 FU at an estimated 19.1 magnitude. There's a third one in the southern part of the cluster but at magnitude 19.7 it didn't survive the color image. I can barely see it in the luminance FITS stack if I use averted imagination. It is (154523) 2003 FF92.
There are several galaxies in the image but only 2 have redshift values. With only two I didn't prepare an annotated image. One is lost among the stars of the globular less than halfway from the core to the edge (6dF J1656595-040746). The other is near the left edge above center and is just a typical small red fuzzy spot. NED lists both with EXACTLY the same redshift. z=0.087107. I find this very unusual. I've never seen this happen even in very dense galaxy clusters. Is one a misprint? That value translates to a light-travel time distance of 1.14 billion light-years using NED's 5 year WMAP calculation.
An HST image of the very center of the cluster in false color can be seen at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/cluster-m10.html . The galaxy in the lower right corner of the HST image is not the one in NED. It is much closer to the core. The HST image has north to the left while mine has north at the top.
M10 was one of Messier's discoveries, seen on May 29, 1764. It wasn't until William Herschel recorded it that its stars were first seen.
For a bit more see: http://messier.seds.org/m/m010.html
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RG=2x10' B=3x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
M10L4X10RG2X10B3X10R.JPG
| M12 is yet another globular star cluster in Ophiuchus. This constellation hosts more globular clusters than any other. It is some 15 to 16 thousand light-years from us. Rather close as globular clusters go. Assuming this distance and a size of about 16 arc minutes it is some 75 light-years across. Though I measure its size at 12 arc minutes on my image making it only 56 light-years across. But then my exposure time was very short, only 10 minutes rather than my usual 40 meaning I lost a lot of the outlying stars. Why I used such little exposure time I don't know recall and I left no notes.
The cluster was one actually discovered by Messier himself on May 30, 1764. For more on it see: http://messier.seds.org/m/m012.html
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x2' RGB=3x2', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
M12L5X2RGB3X2R.JPG
| M13 is likely the most famous globular cluster in the northern hemisphere. A combination of its large true size of just under 150 light-years, nearly half again the size of a typical globular cluster and its rather close distance of 25,000 light-years make it the largest globular in the northern sky. The southern sky has two even larger, so large they were both originally cataloged as stars.
M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714. Charles Messier recorded it on June 1, 1764. Its age is often stated as older than the universe which is impossible of course. Safe to say it is very old and may predate our galaxy's formation. That would mean it was captured from another galaxy ours likely disrupted in its early days.
You can read more on this at: http://messier.seds.org/m/m013.html
As with most M objects, I took this one back in 2007 when I didn't quite understand what I was doing and my processing skills were rather poor. Since this one turned out fairly well I've not reprocessed it though it could use this treatment.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x5' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME
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M13LUM6X5RB2X10G1X10R2.jpg
| M14 is a rather typical globular cluster, class VIII, in Ophiuchus. Being a bit below the celestial equator and in the edge of the Milky Way it is a bit difficult for me to image clearly. Dust from the galaxy seems to have reddened my image considerably. I reprocessed it to correct for this using eXcalibrator so hope it is more accurate than before. Searching the web for images I find some red like my original one, some that match my "corrected" version and others far bluer than mine such as this one with a 0.9 meter telescope by the pros https://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0836.html . Which is right? Who knows. I'm going with mine for now.
Distances and size of the cluster vary. Most however say it is about 30,000 light-years distant. Using that and trying to estimate its outer faint stars I get a size of 105 light-years. Rather typical but NOAO in the link above says 72 light-years for its size. Using their distance of 29,000 light-years and just the star-ball I get a size of only 55 light-years. They give it a size of 11.6 minutes of arc which I compute to give a size of 97 light-years at their distance, not 72. Time to break out the Jack Daniels.
The globular does have more variable stars than most though no where near the record for them. It was discovered by Charles Messier who listed it on June 1, 1764. Exactly when he first saw it I was unable to determine but he usually recorded his discoveries rather quickly, but for say M110 which he never recorded but is credited with finding.
This was another early image of mine that short changed the exposure time though for globular clusters this isn't all bad but did leave me with a lot of noise to deal with when I reprocessed it.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x5' RGB=3x5', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
M14_6X5RGB3X5R-67.JPG
| M15 is a large, core collapse, globular cluster in Pegasus. Often described as the fly on the horse's nose because of its location. A core collapse globular is one in which the massive stars have all fallen toward the core of the globular making it unusually dense. My image has used a radial filter to tone down the core so individual stars can be seen. For a version that hasn't done this to the extent I did is at: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131119.html
The cluster is some 35,000 light-years distant by current literature though older reports put it very slightly closer.
It is home to a planetary nebula, Pease 1. In fact, it is the first planetary nebula ever found in a globular cluster though others are now known but not in any Messier globular that I'm aware of. My seeing the night this was taken wasn't all that good but you can just make it out as a blue object to the northeast of the core. The southern part is bright and starlike in my image while a shell to the north shows as a much fainter blue region. The enlarged cropped image of the core points to both parts of the nebula. I really do need to take this one on a better night. But since this dates back to 2006 and it hasn't happened again don't hold your breath.
The cluster was likely first seen by Jean-Dominique Maraldi on September 7, 1746 while he was searching for De Chéseaux' comet. Messier then cataloged it on June 3, 1764. Maraldi described it as a nebulous star...composed of many stars. So did he see it as stars or not. Most vote he didn't but was just thinking the light was likely made of many stars too faint for him to see. Messier definitely didn't see its stars. Most credit William Herschel for that.
You can read a lot more on this cluster at: http://messier.seds.org/m/m015.html
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=9x2'x1 RGB=2x2'x2, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for M015MESSIER 015, NGC 7078, 2MASXi J2129571+121004, 2MASS J21295836+1210007, IRAS 21274+1156, IRAS F21275+1156, LEDA 2802701, PN G065.0-27.3, PSR J2129+1210, RX J2129.9+1209, 1RXS J212958.4+120959, MAXI J2129+121, 2PBC J2129.9+1210, PBC J2129.9+1210, SAXWFC J2130.0+1209.7, 1WGA J2129.9+1210, 4U 2127+119, XSS J21296+1208, SWIFT J2129.9+1209, RX J2129.9+1209:[BEV98] 001, [KRL2007] 386, [LM2010] 51, [TES2010] 191, [ZGV2011] 008, [BTM2013] 1113, M015, PNPS1, | 
M15L9X2X1RGB2X2X2R1.JPG
M15L9X2X1RGB2X2X2R1_PEASE1.JPG
| M17 is a Nebula in Sagittarius that is below my -15 degree cut off but I hadn't made that "rule" in 2006 when this was taken. The Nebula goes by many names including Swan Nebula, Horseshoe Nebula and even Lobster Nebula (mostly by southern hemisphere folks). It is thought to be about 5000 light-years away. It is one of many star-forming regions seen in this part of the Milky Way, that is, looking toward the galaxies core. Others are M16, M20 and M8 to name a few, most too far south for me to catch but as fuzzy blobs as seen from this far north.
This was a very early attempt at color processing a nebula. I had no idea how to do it and found an online tutorial that I tried to follow but came up with a very blue nebula. I found another that gave me a totally red nebula. Both very wrong compared to online images of the time. Turns out those videos were by less than major imagers and left me with poor color. For this version, I've mixed the two at about 50-50 and the color of the nebula is a good match to today's RGB images of the nebula. The blue region is rich in OIII and H beta light and is what is seen through an eyepiece as the eye is very insensitive to H alpha red but very sensitive to OIII and H beta.
Stars, however, are very poor as to color. I do need to reshoot this one now that I understand all the mistakes made in taking color data back in 2006 and 2007.
The nebula was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Messier recorded it on June 3, 1764.
For more see: http://messier.seds.org/m/m017.html
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=12x5' RGB=3x5', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
M17L12X5RGB3X5R2.JPG
| MO2001 104 is the core of a double planetary nebula. Technically it is the emission line star at the core of the nebula which goes by many designations. The name used by the best paper on it is KjPn 8 and the paper is at http://www.crya.unam.mx/rmaa/RMxAC..12/PDF/RMxAC..12_lopez.pdf . Other names include PK 112-00 1, K 3-89, and PN G112.5-00.1. Coordinates are 23h 24m 10.472s +62d 57' 30.75".
The apparent central star is actually a planetary nebula which is surrounded by a far larger planetary nebula. It is located in Cassiopeia on the southeast edge of the nebulosity surrounding the far more famous Bubble Nebula, the edge of which is seen to the upper right. It is also 40 minutes straight south of M52.
The paper concludes it is the result of a double star whose stars are so similar in evolution they both became bipolar planetary nebula at almost the same instant in astronomical time. The tiny one at the center having been created very recently, if you consider less than 3400 years recent. The large double cone-shaped nebula is thought to be 10 to 20 thousand years old according to the above paper. A somewhat deeper image of the nebula is seen in the paper.
For once I used H alpha data to assemble the image, 90 minutes of it in fact in 30 minute subs. This was combined 80% in red, 10% green and 20% blue as well as 100% in the luminance channel. All blended using lighten mode for the nebula only. Stars are pure LRGB.
14" LX200R @ f/10, Ha=3x30' L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | 
M02001-104ANNOTATED.JPG
M02001_104L4X10HA3X30RGB2X10.JPG
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