Month: November 2020

Here is a lovely view of the Hercules cluster, from imaging taken by Nathan Wolthuis ’21, and his co-observers earlier this semester.

Nathan explains: “This is a 3 color image (​B​,​r,​ & i) of the Hercules globular cluster (M13). Globular clusters are groups of stars tightly bound by their gravitational fields that orbit galactic cores. Globular cluster gravitational fields are quite dense, which results in the populations taking on a spherical shape. It should be noted that this globular cluster in particular has many ancient low mass stars, primarily reds and yellows especially in the center. This is further reinforced through the younger bluer (and more metallic) stars having a tendency to diffuse outwards, which can be seen in the image. This image was taken using a FLI Proline CCD and 16” telescope, with the ​B filter assigned as blue, ​r a​ s green, and i​ ​as red.”

This image by Elizabeth Warrick, BMC ’21 is her second attempt at imaging the Triangulum galaxy, the first one foiled by pointing issues. I’d  like to applaud Elizabeth for her persistence in getting this tricky image.

Elizabeth explains: “The Triangulum Galaxy is a very beautiful spiral galaxy that shows the wonderful structure galaxies can hold in the night sky. In this image you see a picture of the Triangulum Galaxy (lower right quadrant) imaged in the g,r, and i filters respectively. The filters I chose to observe allow us to look at the galaxy overall using the g,r, and i filters to get a good look at the wavelengths of light. Notice the faint spiral arm structure coming out of the slightly brighter center of the galaxy.”

This image by Roma Hdlaky ’22 was taken the night of 20th Sept 2020 at Haverford College.

Roma explains: “The Pelican nebula is a cloud of gas and dust. The Pelican nebula is extremely high in H-alpha which is prevalent with active star formation.

The blue [emission] in the center is produced by the H-alpha filter. OIII and SII filters were also used and stacked in this image, but were faint in comparison to H-alpha.”