Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae NGC104

Took this with a Canon 450D and SWED80 Refractor.  Initial Post Procesing including stacking, stretching, curves and noise reduction in Nebulosity and adjusted levels, curves, hue and saturation in Photoshop.  Consists of 5 x 60 second raw frames,  Autoguided with anothe ED80 and Meade DSI 2 Monochrome camera using PHD(Push Here Dummy) Software.

Visible to the naked eye, 47 Tucanae resides in the constellation Tucana (The Toucan) and is easily found with its brightness and position just adjacent to the Small Magellanic Cloud.  Being circumpolar (never setting below the horizon) makes it a feature of southern star parties all year round.  It's distance is approximately 17000 light years from us and it is 120 light years across.  It's   It's dense distinctive looking core of stars demonstrates both it's visual distinctiveness and  it;s dense population of high mass stars concentrated in the centre.