Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Hydra (Hya)  ·  Contains:  M 68  ·  NGC 4590
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M 68 (NGC 4590) A Globular Cluster in Hydra in RGB, Ian Parr
M 68 (NGC 4590) A Globular Cluster in Hydra in RGB
Powered byPixInsight

M 68 (NGC 4590) A Globular Cluster in Hydra in RGB

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M 68 (NGC 4590) A Globular Cluster in Hydra in RGB, Ian Parr
M 68 (NGC 4590) A Globular Cluster in Hydra in RGB
Powered byPixInsight

M 68 (NGC 4590) A Globular Cluster in Hydra in RGB

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Messier 68 (also known as NGC 4590) is a globular cluster found in the east south-east of Hydra and is about 33,600 light-years away from Earth. 
It has a highly  eccentric orbit that takes it up to 100,000 light years from the center. It is one of the most metal-poor globular clusters and may be undergoing core-collapse as it displays signs of being in rotation. The cluster may have been acquired by the Milky Way from a satellite galaxy.

It has an apparant magnitude of 7.3 and is about 11 arminutes across.

Once Herschel's ray dropped I was able to continue with  fair seeing for another 2 and a half hours to bag this one in the one seession and not a single exposure warranted rejection which is quite rare.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M 68 (NGC 4590) A Globular Cluster in Hydra in RGB, Ian Parr