47 Tucanae

47 Tucanae (aka NGC 104) is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It is about 15,000 ± 33 light years away from Earth and 120 light years in diameter. 47 Tuc can be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of 4.1.

47 Tucanae is the second brightest globular cluster after Omega Centauri, and telescopically reveals about ten thousand stars, many appearing within a small dense central core. The cluster may contain an intermediate-mass black hole of less than 1500 solar masses.

Though it appears adjacent to the Small Magellanic Cloud, the SMC is 200,000 ± 3,300 light years distant, being over fifteen times farther than 47 Tuc.

Total Integration: 1 Hr