Observing Spotlight – Whatever Happened to M71?

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In our rush to look at the bright and beautiful objects in the night, we often overlook celestial curiosities in favor of a more splashy neighbor. How many times have you looked at the Andromeda Galaxy, but really didn’t take the time to power up and study M110? Perhaps you spent a whole evening studying the intricacies of the Great Orion Nebula – but totally forgot about striking M78? It’s the way of things. But, next time you drop by the Dumbbell Nebula, spend some Hubl time with the sparkling stars of Messier 71…

Discovered by Philippe Loys de Cheseaux in 1746 and researched by Charles Messier then added his catalog of comet-like objects in 1780, this brilliant globular cluster let’s its presence be known at a distance of about 12,000 light years away from Earth. Covering an area measuring approximately 27 light years across, it shines with a luminosity of around 13,200 suns – not bad for a conglomeration of stars which could be as old as 9-10 billion years. Until about four decades ago, Messier 71 was believed to be a dense galactic cluster – nearly devoid of RR Lyrae “cluster” variable stars and rich in metallicity.

And a concentrated cluster of stars it stayed until modern H-R diagram photometry picked up a short “horizontal branch” in its structure…

Who remembers to stop and study? While grandiose images like our Hubble lead-in photo might pique your curiosity for a moment, it’s the deep sky dedication and devotion revealed in the work of Bernhard Hubl which ignites the sense of wonder all over again…

Reach out and touch M71 for yourself. Located in the constellation of Sagitta at RA:19h 53m 48s Dec: +18°47′ and close to magnitude 7, it’s easily caught in average binoculars from a dark sky location, beauty revealed in smaller telescopes and breathtakingly resolved in large aperture telescopes. It’s really not hard to find if you just take the time to let your eyes relax to see Sagitta’s faint arrow-shaped signature asterism. Just aim mid-way between Gamma and Delta and be swept away…

Because it’s full of stars.

Many thanks go to Bernhard Hubl of Northern Galactic for his untold hours of work just to share the inspiration!