M7, Ptolemy's Cluster
Registar finds 41,956 stars in this frame. Whoa! I'd hate to try to count those by hand... Note dark nebula Barnard 287 (B287) below and just to the left of the cluster; you can also see part of a much larger B283 on the upper right.
Image Details: 8x4 minute exposures on 3/25/2006 at HAS site near Columbus, TX, USA. Canon EOS 20Da (unmodified), Takahashi TOA 130 (a 5" APO refractor), Losmandy G-11 mount. My current image processing workflow is here.
Messier object number 7 (Ptolemy's Cluster) is one of the best binocular clusters in the sky. It's at the tail of Scorpius the scorpion. You can see the backdrop of the Milky Way, along with various dark nebulae in the area. This star is on a line of sight to one of the brightest areas of our Milky Way Galaxy. When you look in this direction you are looking toward the center of the galaxy.
This is the southern-most object in Charles Messier's Catalog. There are some clusters just below this that Messier was unable to view from Paris; M7 was just a few degrees above the horizon there at its highest. See some nearby objects on my 3/25/06 Southern Spring Skies from Texas page. I also have a wide Southern Milky way page worth seeing.
The table below shows some of my previous efforts at M7. M6 is nearby, and shown here.
 M7, Open Cluster Near Scorpius (old version) | Left image from 2004 taken in the Davis Mountains, Texas. Dark Nebulae are visible: B287 just to the left of the middle cluster, B283 is to the right and down from the cluster, and perhaps B87 on the mid-upper-right part of the picture. | Another M7 here. |
 Southern Scorpius: Cat's Paw Nebula, NGC 6634 | Astrophotography: Clusters Page 2 by Dick Locke | |
Astrophotography: Clusters Page 3, by Dick Locke
| Messier Pictures, Images by Dick Locke | Astronomy Pictures: Dick Locke's Astrophoto Gateway page |
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