M80
Globular cluster in Scorpius

10.1″ f/4.5, Mallincam DS432cTEC
Exposure = 5 sec, Live Stacked frames = 20-20 (40 total), Gain = 6-16 of 250

M80 is a bright but very small globular cluster located 4.5 degrees north-west of Antares. It’s core is very bright and unresolvable at this scale (I would like to revisit it with higher power) and the extremities contain bright stars spread more or less equally in a circular pattern with an additional Y-shaped pattern superimposed. It appears about 5 arc minutes across; in actuality it is 96 light years in diameter and 33,000 light years away. M80 is a fairly southern object, at the time this image was taken it was just over 20 degrees above the horizon.

North at 11 o’clock, East at 8 o’clock