Lmst

A couple of nights ago I let my #Dwarf3 stay out all night with a stellation mask, which bagged me about 8 hours worth of #Antares , #Messier4 , and other goodies, including the Antares #ReflectionNebula.

I ran it through the #DwarfLab #StellarStudio tools, and then did a bit more cleanup in #Snapseed and #GooglePhotos - about 15 minutes work.

I'm pretty darned pleased with the results.

#astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #Nebula #Star #GlobularStarCluster

A bright red star with eight rays shooting out from it is just to the right of the top centre. In the extreme top left is an almost circular tight cluster of stars. Below the big red star is a red-orange cloud of nebula.

#Messier4
#Astronomy #Picture of the Day

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241129.html

#APOD

@leece
I'd say so! Our horizontal FoV is, iirc, 2.3 degrees. #ngc6144 is one degree from #Messier4 , and it looks right. Well spotted!

So next I had a go at M4. I don't generally have a lot of interest in globular clusters but I was looking for something bright and quick, because the cloud was coming. And as globular clusters go, it's not just a round blob. Unfortunately the Moon was too close and I gave up on it pretty quickly. But a bit of post prod in Google photos and it came up nicely.

So a few hundred years ago Messier was a bloke who was looking for comets. He made up a list of things that he found that *weren't* comets, so he could get them out of his way I guess. I guess to him they were Messy Objects. Sorry Mr Messier, you've been a great help to us.

There you go, I've probably made a joke that astronomers have been making since the 1700's.

#Messier4
#astronomy #astrophotography #BackYardAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy