Messier 15 - globular star cluster in the constellation Pegasus

The Globular star cluster Messier 15 taken from our backyard using my 127mm refracting telescope and a Canon 600D DSLR at approx f=900mm

The globular star cluster M15 was discovered in 1746 by Jean-Dominique Maraldi. You can view the cluster from a dark site using standard 10x50mm binoculars. In binoculars it appears as a small fuzzy disc of light against the dark night sky close to the star Enif in the constellation Pegasus.

Location Map for M15.  North is up and South down, East is left and West right. The yellow square denotes the location of Messier 15

The cluster is approximately 33,600 light years distant from Earth, has a diameter of 175 light years and contains over one hundred thousand stars. If our planet circled a star in such a cluster, the night sky would be awash with starlight and night as we know it would not exist. Globular star clusters are located in galactic halos (ie. they are gravitationally bound to galaxies and buzz around them like bees to the hive.) The Milky Way galaxy in which we abide has over 150 globular star clusters in its halo.

Messier 15 is one of the most densely packed globulars known in the Milky Way galaxy. Its core has undergone a contraction known as 'core collapse' and it has a central density cusp with an enormous number of stars surrounding what may be a central black hole. 
 
The cluster is notable for containing a large number of variable stars (112) and pulsars (8), including one double neutron star system, M15 C.  M15 also contains Pease 1, the first planetary nebula discovered within a globular cluster in 1928. Just three others have been found in globular clusters since then.

An enlargement of my image to show the dense core of M15

Just think there could be a black hole lurking at the centre of this dense ball of stars. How good is that?

Credits: Wikipedia and StarMap Pro 9.