M4 (Doug Summers)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Scorpius (Sco) · Contains: M 4 · NGC 6121

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M4

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M4

Embedded in the broader colorful Rho Ophiuchus region, Messier 4 is surrounded by nearby dust and gas that is partially captured in this image. M4 is the closest globular cluster to us at only 5K-7K light-years distance. It contains ~100K stars, many of which are cooling white dwarf stars (possibly up to 40K). Being so close, M4 has been extensively studied for chemical composition. M4 was the first globular cluster where individual stars were discerned.

The central core region spans ~15 arcmins, while the full extent spans ~30 arcmins. At 5-7K light-years distance, the core has an extent of 22-30 light-years in diameter, and the full extent is ~45-60 light-years in diameter. That's a lot of stars packed in a tight ball!

Celestron RASA
The OSC Club (One Shot Camera)

Globular Clusters
Messier Objects
z-Chiricahua Astronomy Complex

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5757065
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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