M72

Messier 72, in Aquarius, is one of the smaller and fainter globular clusters in Messier's catalog, being between 9th and 10th magnitude, its brightest star coming in at only 14.2. It is one of the farthest globulars from Earth, lying about 53,000 light-years distant, and is actually quite bright but appears much less so due to the intervening galactic dust. Like M71, this cluster is not very concentrated but does appear more round than its counterpart. M72 is a difficult object in small telescopes due to its low surface brightness and only the larger amateur scopes can show individual stars in the cluster.

Image taken September 8, 2012, with the C-14 operating at F:7 The camera was binned 2 X 2 and exposed 300 seconds using Track and Accumulate.