NGC 2419 – The Intergalactic Wanderer
OBJECT
NGC 2419 is neither on the list of the most popular globular clusters nor in the common astrophotographic targets.
The cluster is in Lynx, a dull constellation on the Northern hemisphere with no many deep sky objects apart from some diffuse galaxies and this cluster.
The importance of NGC 2419 relies on its distance to the Milky Way. This distance has been estimated to be 300.000 light years. Usually, globular clusters are ten times closer to the Milky Way. This cluster is floating really distant from our galaxy.
The object is known by the nickname of ‘Intergalactic Wanderer’ because it was thought that it was a strange object not linked to the Milky Way but a free cluster floating in the void between galaxies.
Some authors carried out in-depth studies setting out that NGC2419 could be the relic of a dwarf galaxy. Others think that the galaxy has been swept along the star streams of the galaxy halo.
Similar distant globular clusters have been detected on other galaxies such as M31 and M33 where some clusters are well outside the optical disks of their corresponding galaxies.
An extremelly faing (~18 magnitude) galaxy (PGC 2137090) is also on the field.
From the tech point of view, the image has required short (120 second) individual exposures to avoid saturation due to the bright stars on the field.
TECH DATA
Optics: Ritchie-Chretien GSO RC10 f/8 scope
Camera: SBIG STL-6303
Exposure details:
NGC 2419 image is a LRGB composition of:
– Luminance: 95 images, 120 seconds each using L filter (binning 1x1) (190 minutes)
– Red channel: 20 images, 300 seconds each using R filter (binning 2x2) ( 100 minutes)
– Green channel: 13 images, 300 seconds each using G filter (binning 2x2) (65 minutes)
– Blue channel: 16 images, 300 seconds each using B filter (binning 2x2) (80 minutes)