Published in Australian Sky & Telescope May 2011

***** About this Image *****

This massive ball of stars is in the constellation of Centaurus and is the finest example of a
Globular Star Cluster in the sky. With a mass of 5 Million times that of our Sun and at a distance
of just 16000 light years from Earth, it is the largest and one of the closest of the more than one
hundred and fifty globular clusters associated with our Milky Way galaxy. There are several million
stars in this cluster.

AP152 F7.5 Starfire APO refractor with 4" field flattener
FLI ProLine11002 CCD & CFW-2-7
LRGB = 10 6 6 6min (all bin 1X1) Astronomik filters
-35C chip temp, darks and flats (AstroHandy LightRing used for flats)
12MPPS download speed = 1.5sec/full frame download at bin 1X1.
Image scale = 1.4"/pix
Guide Camera: Starlightxpress SXVH9

Equipment setup:
http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/81003751/original

Some links to equipment used to take this image:

Finger Lakes Instrumentation CCD cameras:

http://www.fli-cam.com/

Astro-Elecronic FS2 scope GOTO controller:

http://www.astro-electronic.de/

Gerd Neumann/Astronomik filters:

http://www.gerd.neumann.net/

http://www.astronomik.com/

MSB Software & Astroart 4

http://www.msb-astroart.com/

STAR Atlas:PRO planetarium software:

http://www.skylab.com.au/

AstroHandy Accessories

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/astrohandy_lightring

http://www.astrohandy.com

CCTV.com Security and Surveillance Equipment

http://www.123-cctv.com/