This stunning image frames Messier 15, one of the densest globular clusters in the Milky Way, surrounded by faint hydrogen-alpha filaments and integrated flux nebula. Located about 33,000 light-years away in Pegasus, M15 contains over 100,000 stars tightly packed into a sphere just 175 light-years across. Its collapsed core may even harbor a rare intermediate-mass black hole.

The long exposures in H-alpha and broadband filters reveal delicate red and gray wisps of interstellar gas and dust, rarely captured in wide-field images of M15. These structures belong to the faint galactic cirrus that permeates the outer regions of our galaxy, adding an ethereal backdrop to the brilliant, ancient cluster.