M71 globular cluster

Description

This photo shows the Messier 71 globular star cluster or M71. It is about 12 thousand light years away from us and only about 27 light years across, but contains many thousand stars with a total mass of about 50 thousand masses of our Sun, but approximately twice as old as our Sun! Planets within this cluster hardly know any nights, because their sky is simply full of stars much closer to them than on our own sky on the Earth. This photo was taken for 30 seconds with ISO 1600 with a Canon EOS 600-D mounted on a telescope.