Star Clusters - Globular and Open - post your images of clusters

[Blackbird]

Caldwell 98 The Coal Sack Cluster
from the wiki
NGC 4609 (also known as Caldwell 98) is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Crux. It was discovered on May 12, 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop.[4] The cluster has an apparent visual magnitude of 6.9[2] and spans an angular size of 6.5′.[1] It is situated beyond the Coalsack Nebula[5] at an estimated distance of 4,500 ly (1,379 pc) from the Sun

View attachment 11655

Wow...

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

Caldwell 98 The Coal Sack Cluster
from the wiki
NGC 4609 (also known as Caldwell 98) is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Crux. It was discovered on May 12, 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop.[4] The cluster has an apparent visual magnitude of 6.9[2] and spans an angular size of 6.5′.[1] It is situated beyond the Coalsack Nebula[5] at an estimated distance of 4,500 ly (1,379 pc) from the Sun

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There are sooo many stars in the image but am I right that the actual cluster is made up of the stars in the middle? Is the big star (red giant maybe?) south-west of it also part of the cluster?

Another mind blowing image, Jeff!

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

There are sooo many stars in the image but am I right that the actual cluster is made up of the stars in the middle? Is the big star (red giant maybe?) south-west of it also part of the cluster?

Another mind blowing image, Jeff!

Yes the cluster is the 8 bright stars and several fainter ones to the upper right of the really bright star

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Caldwell 105 2 1/2 minute exposure taken with the Slooh Australia Observatory 20" (dia) scope. Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom

The globular cluster is situated in the very southerly constellation Musca[6] at a distance of 21,500 light years from Earth.[4] It is located near the Coalsack Nebula and is partially obscured by this dusty region of the galactic plane.[7] After corrections for the reddening by dust, evidence was obtained that it is in the order of 2 billion years older than globular clusters M5 or M92.[11]
This is a massive, metal-poor globular cluster that shows evidence for multiple generations of stars

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Messier 5 globular cluster
from the wiki
Messier 5 or M5 (also designated NGC 5904) is a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens. It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch in 1702.
Discovery and visibility

M5 is, under extremely good conditions, just visible to the naked eye as a faint "star" 0.37 of a degree (22' (arcmin)) north-west of star 5 Serpentis. Binoculars and/or small telescopes resolve the object as non-stellar; larger telescopes will show some individual stars, some of which are as bright as apparent magnitude 10.6.[8] M5 was discovered by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch in 1702 when he was observing a comet. Charles Messier noted it in 1764 and—a studier of comets—cast it as one of his nebulae. William Herschel was the first to resolve individual stars in the cluster in 1791, counting roughly 200.[9] Messier 5 is receding from the Solar System at a speed over 50 km/s.[10]

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Messier 12 globular cluster again taken from my backyard

WIKI: Messier 12 or M 12 (also designated NGC 6218) is a globular cluster in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It was discovered by the French astronomer Charles Messier on May 30, 1764, who described it as a "nebula without stars".[8] In dark conditions this cluster can be faintly seen with a pair of binoculars. Resolving the stellar components requires a telescope with an aperture of 8 in (20 cm) or greater.[9] In a 10 in (25 cm) scope, the granular core shows a diameter of 3′ (arcminutes) surrounded by a 10′ halo of stars

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Messier 107 loose globular cluster

from the wiki: Messier 107 or M107, also known as NGC 6171 or the Crucifix Cluster, is a very loose globular cluster in a very mildly southern part of the sky close to the equator in Ophiuchus, and is the last such object in the Messier Catalogue.

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Messier 3 Globular Cluster - taken by me using the Slooh 20" (1/2 Meter) telescope in the Canary Islands Observatory

from the Wiki:
Messier 3 (M3; also NGC 5272) is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici.
Discovery
It was discovered on May 3, 1764,[10] and was the first Messier object to be discovered by Charles Messier himself. Messier originally mistook the object for a nebula without stars. This mistake was corrected after the stars were resolved by William Herschel around 1784.[11] Since then, it has become one of the best-studied globular clusters. Identification of the cluster's unusually large variable star population was begun in 1913 by American astronomer Solon Irving Bailey and new variable members continue to be identified up through 2004.

 

[Blackbird]

Messier 3 Globular Cluster - taken by me using the Slooh 20" (1/2 Meter) telescope in the Canary Islands Observatory

from the Wiki:
Messier 3 (M3; also NGC 5272) is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici.
Discovery
It was discovered on May 3, 1764,[10] and was the first Messier object to be discovered by Charles Messier himself. Messier originally mistook the object for a nebula without stars. This mistake was corrected after the stars were resolved by William Herschel around 1784.[11] Since then, it has become one of the best-studied globular clusters. Identification of the cluster's unusually large variable star population was begun in 1913 by American astronomer Solon Irving Bailey and new variable members continue to be identified up through 2004.

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Would most of the stars in clusters like this be more or less the size of our own star, the sun?

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Would most of the stars in clusters like this be more or less the size of our own star, the sun?

They would be all different sizes. As far as stars go our sun is rather tiny.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

They would be all different sizes. As far as stars go our sun is rather tiny.

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View attachment 22173

A tiny sun and a puny planet. These images really put us in our place...

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Messier 5 taken with the Slooh 14" SCT telescope at the Chile Observatory

from the WIKI: M5 is, under extremely good conditions, just visible to the naked eye as a faint "star" 0.37 of a degree (22' (arcmin)) north-west of star 5 Serpentis. Binoculars and/or small telescopes resolve the object as non-stellar; larger telescopes will show some individual stars, some of which are as bright as apparent magnitude 10.6.[8] M5 was discovered by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch in 1702 when he was observing a comet. Charles Messier noted it in 1764 and—a studier of comets—cast it as one of his nebulae. William Herschel was the first to resolve individual stars in the cluster in 1791, counting roughly 200.[9] Messier 5 is receding from the Solar System at a speed over 50 km/s

 

[Jeff WX1USN]

Messier 48 taken by myself using the Slooh 11" astrograph with one shot color camera in the Canary Islands

from the WIKI:
Messier 48 or M48, also known as NGC 2548, is an open cluster of stars in the equatorial constellation of Hydra. It sits near Hydra's westernmost limit with Monoceros,[7] about 18° 34′ to the east and slightly south of Hydra's brightest star, Alphard.[8] This grouping was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771, but there is no cluster precisely where Messier indicated; he made an error, as he did with M47. The value that he gave for the right ascension matches, however, his declination is off by five degrees.[9] Credit for discovery is sometimes given instead to Caroline Herschel in 1783.[9] Her nephew John Herschel described it as, "a superb cluster which fills the whole field; stars of 9th and 10th to the 13th magnitude – and none below, but the whole ground of the sky on which it stands is singularly dotted over with infinitely minute points".[8]

M48 is visible to the naked eye under good atmospheric conditions