Messier 8 - The Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula in the constellation Sagittarius - 2 minute exposure using the PIRATE telescope and BVR filters. The Autonomous Robotic Telescope - Mount Teide - Canary Isles. Credit: telescope.org - Open University.

"The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light-years from the Earth. In the sky of Earth, it spans 90' by 40', which translates to an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. Like many nebulas, it appears pink in time-exposure color photos but is gray to the eye peering through binoculars or a telescope, human vision having poor color sensitivity at low light levels. The nebula contains a number of Bok globules (dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material), the most prominent of which have been catalogued by E. E. Barnard as B88, B89 and B296. It also includes a funnel-like or tornado-like structure caused by a hot O-type star that emanates ultraviolet light, heating and ionizing gases on the surface of the nebula. The Lagoon Nebula also contains at its centre a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (so named by John Herschel), which should not be confused with the better known Hourglass Nebula in the constellation of Musca. In 2006 the first four Herbig–Haro objects were detected within the Hourglass, also including HH 870. This provides the first direct evidence of active star formation by accretion within it.^{" 
Credit: Wikipedia}

The Hourglass Nebula at the centre of the Lagoon Nebula - enlargement from the 2 min. PIRATE telescope image.

 

Messier 4 in the Scorpion

Image taken with the PIRATE Telescope on Mount Teide - Canary Islands. Credit -The Autonomous Telescope. Open University -  telescope.org.

In mid-summer, this beautiful globular star cluster may be glimpsed from the UK in the southern horizon hugging constellation - Scorpius the Scorpion.  Messier 4 is located just to the west of the red super giant star Antares.  It is aproximately 75 light years in diameter and is at a distance of 7200 light years. It is an ancient cluster of stars and contains white dwarfs with an individual estimated age of 13 billion years.  Pulsars have been found within this stellar structure, including a pulsar in a binary pair with a white dwarf.

'Witch's Broom' The Western Veil Nebula - NGC6960

Image taken with the PIRATE Telescope on Mount Teide - Canary Islands. Credit -The Autonomous Telescope. Open University -  telescope.org.

The image was taken using sulphur, hydrogen and oxygen filters. The sulphur II was pasted into the red channel, the hydrogen alpha into the green channel and the Oxygen III into the blue channel. (The Hubble Palette)

'The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103), a large but relatively faint supernova remnant. The source supernova exploded circa 3,000 BC to 6,000 BC, and the remnants have since expanded to cover an area roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, or 36 times the area, of the full moon). The distance to the nebula is not precisely known, but Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) data supports a distance of about 1,470 light-years.^'
Credit -Wikipedia

We saw this nebula for the first time about two years ago. We were enjoying the great hospitality and  company of Olly and Monique at Les Granges in the South of France. We balanced on a step ladder to look into the eyepiece of  Olly's monster Dobsonian Reflector. Wow what a sight! I nearly fell off the step ladder.

The Great Cluster in Hercules

Messier 13 - The Great Globular Star Cluster in the Constellation Hercules - Credit: Data obtained from 'The Autonomous Telescope' - Open University. Pirate Telescope a 17" PlaneWave CDK17 telescope with a FLI PL16803 CCD detector on Mount Teide

Our Galaxy - The Milky Way - has a retinue of satellite globular star clusters which sit within the galactic halo.  There are about 150 known globular star clusters gravitationally linked to the Milky Way.  A globular star cluster is a spherical collection of stars bound together by gravity. The distance between stars at their cores is measured in a few light years and anyone living on a planet orbiting one of them would have a night sky full of bright stars. The stars that make up globular clusters are very old and metal poor (comprised from Hydrogen and Helium and precious little else).

From the Earth's northern hemisphere and using little more than 10x40 binoculars, The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules is visible as a circular misty patch.  M13 has approximately 300,000 stars, arranged in a sphere with a diameter of 145 light years and is 25,100 light years distant from our Solar System.

In the 1970s the Arecibo Radio Telescope was used to send a signal announcing mankind's presence out towards the centre of the Great Globular Star Cluster.  If our species is still in existence we might receive a reply in 50,150 years time!

I  have always enjoyed looking through my telescope eye-piece at these ancient collections of stars. They are almost as old as the Universe itself, they are located far away in our Galaxy's suburbs, simultaneously - both massive and ephemeral in the dark night sky.

"Twinkle, twinkle sphere of  light

How I wonder at the sight

Above the disk of our Milky Way

Both cosmic close and far away

Twinkle, twinkle ball of light

Ancient starlight in the night"

Rotifer

Rotifer - mixed media - George Roberts June 2017

"Through a looking glass,

In a single water droplet

One of many rotifers

Plays out its short life

Whilst we stand witness".