Messier 71 - The Arrowhead Cluster

Messier 71, also known as the Arrowhead Cluster, is a globular cluster in the constellation Sagitta. Sagitta means "The Arrow" in Latin. This cluster is quite young, only 9 to 10 billion years old. Saying that 9 to 10 billion years is young might sound odd, but compared to clusters like Messier 13, the Hercules Cluster, which is over 13 billion years old, it is actually quite a bit younger. The relatively young age of Messier 71 makes it less compact, which is why astronomers were not sure at first whether it was a globular or open star cluster.

I think my favorite thing about this image is the massive number of stars surrounding the cluster, just looking at it blows my mind. There is a script somewhere in PixInsight that counts the stars in your image, but I was not able to find it yet. I would not be surprised if there are 30,000 stars visible here. And that is with only 30 minutes of data. Incredible!