M 52 & a Bubble

Picture the scene, France was bathed in a period of mourning for

King Louis XV a struggling economy and battle scarred France

decended futher into dissaray from decades of war that was soon

to fall to the people in the French Revolution . Meanwhile French

astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier had found another faint object to add to his expanding catalogue of (non cometary bodies), whilst observing a comet in the same region .Catalogued as galactic open star cluster (M52) Approx 5000 light years away and 35 million years old, this collection of approx 200 stars has shone for countless eons of time. You will also notice a bubble of glowing gas, at more than twice the distance of M52 this shockwave of expanding gas & dust was created and illuminated by the energetic radiation from a

massive star. This image was taken last night or should I say early this morning for what was an all nighter. The guiding worked well all night allowing for 5 minute sub frames to give me this 1hour 15 minute shot. Focus was a few microns off though.