Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Contains:  M 9  ·  NGC 6333
M 9 (NGC 6333) Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus in RGB with Barnard 64, Ian Parr
M 9 (NGC 6333) Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus in RGB with Barnard 64
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M 9 (NGC 6333) Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus in RGB with Barnard 64

M 9 (NGC 6333) Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus in RGB with Barnard 64, Ian Parr
M 9 (NGC 6333) Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus in RGB with Barnard 64
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M 9 (NGC 6333) Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus in RGB with Barnard 64

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Description

Messier 9 or M9 (NGC 6333) is a globular cluster positioned in the southern part of the constellation of Ophiuchus about 25,800 light-years from earth that lies atop a dark cloud of dust designated Barnard 64.  M9 has an apparent magnitude of 7.9, an angular size of 9.3' and is one of the nearer globular clusters to the center of the galaxy. Its distance from Earth is 25,800 light-years and it's age is estimated at around 12 billion years. Based upon the periods of the 21 RR Lyr variables found in this cluster , it is classified as an Oosterhoff type II globular, which precludes an extra-galactic origin. 

Last night was unexpected! As the promising forecast turned into gusting gale force winds, luckily from the west, so my little pump shed observatory with it's light and dew shields raised on tent poles at each corner, flapping wildly, did it's job. The seeing was truly aweful early on (and for most of the night) so I had low expectations.  I analysed the data and found no satellite trails! Not one in almost 3 1/2 hours. Good start and worth a Lottery ticket!   

After subframe selector tossed out the worst 30% I was interested to see how useable the result would. be. Corrected only in BlurXTerminator, with PSF Analysis values (which looked terrible!)  used for gentle Star Reduction and with Non Stellar Sharpening turned off. I have found Non-Stellar reduction to be a liability for star fields like this and until Russell Croman updates his AI library to deal with clipping, highly problematic unless used topically with masks on a starless image using careful analysis of a Preview until the right balance is worked out.  Anyway it was not used on this image. 

While BlurXTerminator out of the box is amazing, going the extra yard and running multiple seperate manual passes on the linear channels while time consuming is the way to go.

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M 9 (NGC 6333) Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus in RGB with Barnard 64, Ian Parr