NGC 2419 (The Intergalactic Wanderer)

         
     

12" ASA - LRGB

   
      Size: 2000 px    
 
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© Velimir Popov & Emil Ivanov 2013
This globular cluster in the constellation Lynx (also catalogued Caldwell 25) was discovered by William Herschel on December 31st 1788. It has brightness of 10.3 and a diameter of 4 ' and is located at a distance of about 300,000 light years from the Galactic center, which makes it one of the most distant globular clusters. Sometimes NGC 2419 is called "Intergalactic Wanderer". This is a very appropriate name, considering that the distance to a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Cloud is “only” about 160,000 light-years. NGC 2419 is quite similar to other big globular clusters, such as Omega Centauri or M 13. NGC 2419 has a very high luminosity, but looks weak, as it is very far away from us. Perhaps this cluster actually has an extragalactic origin, for example, it may be the remains of a small galaxy absorbed and destroyed by the Milky Way. However, because of its remoteness is difficult to study in order to compare its properties with other globular clusters that populate the cluster’s halo of our Milky Way galaxy. This project has started as photometric standard stars test, which explains the far insufficient exposure times (18 min total exp.time). We will return later on this object with longer times (3+ hours), but we’d like to publish this image because of the uniqueness of the object. Bellow you can find a small graphic showing the Milky Way, the Magellanic clouds and NGC 2419. This gives a good idea how distant this cluster is.
Annotation map

Image details:

Annotation

Center of field RA 07:38:08 (h:m:s)
Center of field DE +38:52:39 (deg:m:s)
Size 34.4 x 22.5 (arcmin)
Pixel scale: 1.03 (arcsec/pixel)
Orientation: Up is -85.9 degrees E of N
Charts and image details obtained from Astrometry.net
Optic(s): ASA 12" Astrograph @ f/3.6 (Newton)
Mount: ASA DDM85 Standard
Camera: SBIG STL 11000 M
Filters: Luminance, Red, Green, Blue, Astronomik filters
Dates/Times: 3 January 2013
Location: IRIDA Observatory, BG, longitude: E 24 44' 18", latitude: N 41 41' 42"
Exp. Details: R:3x2 min, G:3x2 min, B:3x2 min. Bin 1, Total 18 min
More details: Dark and flat frames reduction
Processing: PixInsight / PS
 
Copyright: Velimir Popov and Emil Ivanov 2013. All Rights Reserved
 
e-mail: info@irida-observatory.org
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