- M 30 (NGC 7099)
M 30 is a compact globular cluster in the Fall constellation Capricornus. It was discovered by Charles Messier on the 8th of August 1764. Messier described it as a "nebula" without resolvable stars. While visible as a small glowing ball in binoculars or a small telescope (visual magnitude 7.3), it is difficult to resolve in scopes smaller than 8 inches aperture.
M 30 contains the equivalent of 300,000 Solar masses and is located at a distance of 29,460 LY. It has a physical diameter of around 100 LY. It's orbit around the Milky Way galaxy is inclined aroud 50 degrees to the galactic plane, and it takes the cluster around 160 million years to make one trip around the galaxy. M 30 has a very compact core with an unusually high number of "blue straggler" stars (hot, blue-ish stars that have formed by the merger of older cluster stars). They constitute around 25% of the stars in the central region of the cluster.
The relatively bright star (visual magnitude 8.62) just to the right of the cluster in my image is HD 206034, a spectral class A giant lying at a distance of 680 LY from us.
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