Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae 19th March and 1st September 2021

47 Tucanae

Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae (above) Globular Clusters are the brightest examples of such in the southern hemispere skies and are amongst the most ancient relics (cosmically speaking) that can be easily located and observed with the naked eye and small to larger aperture backyard telescopes.  On average globular clusters are aged by their coolest white dwarf stars to around 12 billion years old.  Incidentally at relatively younger age of around 8 billion years our own sun will itself become a white dwarf.   Shedding it's outer layer it will leave a dense but hot core of materials behind including what remants of our Earth are left assuming it hasn't been consumed by the previous and much larger red giant phase of our sun.

Omega Centuari has a  notably bright spherical ball like appearance and contains, as it's appearance suggests, millions of stars. Originally and mistakenly it was named for being the 24th cataloged star in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur).  In this same constellation the brightest star,  so named 'Alpha' Centuari (one of the two pointers to the Southern Cross), consists of a triple star system (the closest to our solar system) , a mere(cosmically speaking) and aproximate 4 light years distant or in every day terms 40 trillion kilometres hence.  Omega Centauri sits 17000 light years away above the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.  It is a wopping 272 light years wide a similar distance from Earth to Beta Centauri (The other Pointer Star).  

Like Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae, in past centuries, it was thought to be a star and was cataloged 47th in the constellation of Tucanae (The Toucan).  Its lies 13500 light years away below the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.  It is measured at a smaller 120 lightyears in width.   In comparison to Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae has a notably denser central core but petering out into the blackness of space with a less dense appearance on the periphery. 

You can make sense of the relative positions in the sky of these two globular clusters, one above and one below the  plain of the galaxy when we see the southern portion of the Milky Way, containing the Southern Cross and many other stars, nebulae etc, intersecting between the two objects.   

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Centauri

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globular_cluster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/47_Tucanae

Sky Safari Pro 6 App Object Info

Omega Centauri 

Image captured 19th March 2021, 10x60 Second Exposure, ISO 1600, Modified Canon 450D and  Skywatcher EQ6 Mount.   Autogided PHD Meade DSI2 Colour and 50mm GuideScope.  Processed Nebulosity and Photoshop 31st August 2021.

 

M16 The Eagle Nebula 10th July 2021

 

6x  2 Minute Frames(12 Minutes total) taken withCanon 450D, Modified, Skywatcher ED80 and EQ6 Mount(Belt Modified), Multistar Guiding with PHD with Meade DSI2C and 50mm guidescope.  cked and processed with  Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop

Below is a previous process of the same raw frames using Nebulosity and Photoshop

Below is an RGB Image processed from frames taken from a 20 Inch Telescope and a SBIG that I downloaded as part of a Astro Pixel Processor (Image Post Processing Software) Online Seminar. The signal and colour contrast compared to my One Shot Colour 80mm refractor image above is quite striking!