M15 is a globular cluster in Pegasus, lying 32,000 light-years from Earth. It is a Shapley-Sawyer Class IV globular cluster, which means it has some scattering of its peripheral stars, but its hallmark is still that it has a dense core. In the case of M15 the core is intensely brilliant and difficult to resolve. The goal of this image was to resolve the stars down into the dense core.
Image Data:
Telescope/Mount: Celestron Compustar C14 with Starizona LF reducer/corrector (f/7.5).
Camera: SBIG STL 11000M with Baader Planetarium L,R,G, and B filters.
Adaptive Optics: SBIG AO-L @ 8Hz.
Location: Pommier Observatory, Portland, OR, USA.
Dates: 2016-07-05 through 2016-07-14
Exposures: L:R:G:B = 100:100:100:100 = 6 hours, 40 minutes total exposure.
See additional astrophotographs at www.rodpommier.com