With ongoing poor conditions and moonlit nights, I decided to do what I could and target a globular cluster. NGC 5466 is an ancient globular cluster - roughly 12.5 billion years old - in the constellation of Bootes.? It has a low central concentration of stars overall and a significant population of "blue horizontal stars".? The latter are highly luminous blue stars that support helium-to-carbon fusion in their cores as opposed to the hydrogen-to-helium fusion of most stars.? This is a late stage of stellar evolution, consistent with the advanced age of the cluster.? Recent studies show that the cluster is also the origin of a tidal stream of stars that stretches 31 degrees across the sky.? Modeling suggests the stellar stream was caused by a gravitational interaction of NGC 5466 with the disk of the Milky Way galaxy.
The image was captured during 2 nights in April and May from New Mexico under moonlit skies. Image acquisition was done with a 12.5" PlaneWave scope and a QSI-640ws camera at f/8 for a final LRGB integration of 6 hours.
Thanks for looking,
Bruce W
