M71

(Click on the picture above to go to the main image.)

This is the first test image I took with my SBIG ST-7. At first I was convinced that I had the wrong object, because the image looks very much like an open star cluster as seen through an eyepiece (M71 is a globular cluster). I looked at the star charts and noticed an open cluster very close by, called HH20. I was certain that I had accidentally photographed HH20 until I remembered that, like the ST-6, the field of view is only about 15x10 arcminutes, and that an open cluster is normally much too large to fit into such a small field of view.

Therefore, this really is a picture of M71. We are viewing it through a packed star field, causing the foreground stars to blend into the globular cluster.

I took this picture from my driveway.

Constellation	Sagitta
Right Asc (hh:mm:ss)	19:53:48
Declination(deg:sec)	18:47
Magnitude	8.3
Size (ArcMin)	7.2
Tirion SkyAtlas 2000	#16
Uranometria 2000	#162