GLOBULAR CLUSTERS

Huge glittering cities of stars that swarm around the outer regions of galaxies, globular clusters are favourites of amateur astronomers. Bright enough to be visible even around other galaxies, these magnificent objects are a delight in also any telescope. Several of the brightest are easily visible to the naked eye, and the view of one in a large telescope is a view not forgotten.

Globular clusters are generally very ancient objects that form part of the halo of a galaxy. They may be as large as 200 light years across and contain over 2,000,000 stars. Since they are part of the halo, they are not distributed evenly across the sky, but are concentrated towards the Ophiuchius-Scorpius-Sagittarius region.

In observing globular clusters, a large telescope and dark skies are not required, although obviously the bigger the telescope and the darker the skies, the better the view will be. Generally moderate magnification should be used as this will darken the background sky and also assist in resolving the individual stars.