47 Tucanae and Beyond

Image Title: 47 Tucana and beyond

Copyright: Jean-Yves Beninger

Date image was taken: September 22, 2025

Location: Warrumbungle National Park, Australia

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Astro-Physics AP130GTX with QuadTCC 588mm on Mach1 mount.
Camera Zwo ASI2600mm, filtera Antlia L,R,G,B
L,R,G,B (75, 59. 59, 60) x 120s.

47 Tucanae (NGC 104) is a massive globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana, about 16,700 light-years from Earth, it contains millions of very old stars tightly bound by gravity.

Almost all the original gas and dust from which the stars formed has long since been expelled or consumed. All the stars are very old, low in heavy elements, and do not produce large amounts of new gas, which explains why there are no nebulae to observe in a globular cluster.

On the left of the image is NGC 121 and on the right is Kron 3. Both are globular clusters in our neighbor galaxy, the small Magellanic Cloud, 200,000 light years away, 10 times further than 47 Tucana.
Kron3 is a younger globular cluster, estimated to be 6.5 Billion years old, as compared to 47 Tucana (13 billion) and NGC 121 (10 Billion)

Name: Jean-Yves Beninger

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.lesbeninger.com