Globular Cluster M2 (Bruce Rohrlach)

Globular Cluster M2

Something different - Image of Messier Object 2 (M2), a Globular Cluster in the constellation of Aquarius, from a quick throw together of 150 x 8 second luminance subs, with an inversion applied so that stars appear black.

M2 has an estimated age of 13 Gyr (13 Giga years or 13 billion years) - about 90% of the age of the universe. M2 was first discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746 when observing a comet with Jacques Cassini. The object was independently re-observed in the 18th century by the French astronomer Charles Messier who noted the presence of fixed “diffuse” patches of light in the night sky. He interpreted M2 as a nebula, assigning it as No.2 (M2) in his list of night sky objects.

In the end it was William Herschel who finally resolved Messier 2 into the multitude of stars, and in his words ...”It is like a heap of fine sand”.....

In binoculars it’s approximately 150,000 stars appears as a fuzzy ball, though through a large telescope it is a glittering jewel of sparkling granules.

The central brightest part of the highly compressed mass/agglomeration which contains the majority of the 150,000 stars, is just 3.7 light years across. Contrast that with our star, the sun, whose nearest neighbour, Proxima Centauri, is 4 light years away. The night sky seen from the centre of M2 would be ablaze with light.

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 failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2426868
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
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