Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader Mod
5x180sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias
Celestron 9.25 reduced 0.63
Sky and Telescope Online Gallery April 8, 2008Astroimaging Challenge Yahoo Group Winner March, 2008
Messier 3 (also known as
M3 or
NGC 5272) is a
globular cluster in the
constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by
Charles Messier in
1764, and resolved into stars by
William Herschel around 1784. This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is located at a distance of about 33,900 light-years away from
Earth.
Situated in the Galactic halo, out about 40,000 light-years from the Galactic Center, M3 is moving on a box-type orbit of approximate excentricity 0.55, which takes it out up to 66,000 light-years apogalactic distance and up to 49,000 light-years above and below the Galactic plane (currently it is about 33,000 light-years above - i.e., north of - that plane). On the other hand, its perigalactic distance is only 22,000 light-years - at that distance, the tidal radius of M3 will go down to below 200 light-years, so that the outermost stars may easily escape from this globular cluster.
April 5, 2008