M4 globular cluster in Scorpius
Last weekend is a holiday for most residents in Canada. It was also new moon and so I headed out to my favourite dark site in the southeast corner of the province - a largish park named Sandilands (ancient glacial sand esker). While much of the sky was clouded out on both evenings of July 1 and 2 last week, the only targets that were clear were located down in Scorpius and Sag in the southern skies. So, I made lemonade from the cloudy lemons.
Bears: A large one came to say hello as we were setting up - regarded us for a while and decided we were not worth his time, and so shuffled off into the bush.
Batteries: I always come with an extra, and was able to lend one to my buddy Kevin (one of several Kevins in attendance).
M4:
34 x 120" lights OSC - 68 min integration, 120 mm apo, 2600 mc camera, Pixinsight processing.
30 darks
30 flats
80 bias
M4 is a beauty, easily seen even with a small scope. 75 light years across, packed with 11th mag stars, and only a hop/skip away from us @ 7200 lya. A summertime treat for us.
The auroral displays were very active on the second night. You can see my image of some of them here:
https://astrob.in/yyndpa/C/
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