05 Feb 2026
Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) is a Globular Cluster in the constellation Centaurus. It is 17 KLY distant. In the northern hemisphere, in the San Francisco Bay Area, NGC 5139 at it's highest altitude is only 5 degrees above the horizon. It is essentially a southern hemisphere object. It is the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way. It is composed of 10 million stars. It's age is estimated to be over 11 billion years. (NASA Science, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.nasa.gov</a>, TheSky Pro)
Image processed by Andrew Macica, original data from Telescope Live.
Imaging Details:
Observatory: Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile
Telescope: Planewave CDK24
Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches), f/6.5
Focal Length: 3962 mm
Camera: FLI PL 9000 CCD
Filters: LRGB
Total Exposure: 8 hours 25 min.
Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);
BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator (RC Astro);
Adobe Photoshop 12.5.1;
Adobe Lightroom Classic 14.1.1
Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.
NGC 5139
9 credit
Filter | Avg Exp (s) | Total Exposure | Subframes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luminance | 300 | 2h50m | 34 |
| Red | 309 | 2h50m | 33 |
| Green | 282 | 2h35m | 33 |
| Blue | 309 | 2h50m | 33 |