Omega Centauri: This ultimate high-light of the southern sky, here imaged with the STL 11K camera, is never ending to amaze one with its millions of stars.
Two different populations of stars (younger blue ones and older yellowish ones) together with the recent discovery of a medium sized Black Hole within Omega Centauri seem to indicate that this object was not evolving from a cluster of densely packed stars, but from a dwarf galaxy. This was captured by Milky Way and stripped of many of its stars. But by the mutual exchange of matter also new generations of stars could have been generated.
Have a look at the Hi-Res version to be even more stunned by the tremendous number of stars.
Here is a picture of the core region.
Object |
Omega Centauri |
|---|---|
Catagory |
Globular Clusters |
Designation |
NGC 5139 |
Constellation |
Centaurus |
Optics |
TMB 130 f/6 with Field Flattener |
Camera |
SBIG STL 11000M with internal CFW 5 |
Exposure |
3 x 5min each (1x1 bin) Astrodon True Balance RGB filterset. Maxim DL for image aquisition |
Calibration |
Dark frame |
|---|---|
Guiding |
Selfguiding |
Mount |
Astro-Physics 900 GTO |
Processing |
Maxim DL5, Photoshop. Color code RGB |
Location, Date |
Somerset West, South Africa - 20 Feb 2009 |
Remark |