This wide-field image showcases 47 Tucanae (NGC 104), one of the brightest and most massive globular clusters in the Milky Way, rising over the dark skies of Warrumbungle National Park, Australia. Located about 13,000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana, 47 Tuc contains millions of ancient stars densely packed into a luminous core that shines with a golden hue.

Surrounding the cluster are countless more distant stars and galaxies, offering a striking sense of scale between our galaxy’s halo and the deep cosmic background. The remarkable sharpness of this image reveals faint globulars and background galaxies, hinting at the vast structures that lie far beyond the Milky Way’s stellar outskirts.

Image Description:                    

Location: Rio Hurtado, Chile    

Telescope: ASA 500N             

Camera: FLI PL16803             

Mount: ASA DDM85                

Red: 7x10 minutes (binned 1x1)  

Green: 6x10 minutes (binned 1x1)

Blue: 7x10 minutes (binned 1x1) 

Copyright 2022 Bernard Miller   

Here is 47 Tucanae, AKA NGC 104 from some time I booked on a telescope in Chile. It was harder than I thought it would be to process. This is a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes of exposure after I tossed 30 minutes of L due to 300s subs absolutely destroying the core of this. I wish I had done 2x more of R, G, and B rather than the 6x L. Still, it's a really cool looking glob!

Cooyright: Scotty Bishop