Southern Sky Gems Observatory, Tivoli AstroFram, Kalahari Desert, Namibia

Total Exposure Time: 6:40 hours
Bin1:L 22 x 10 min.;Bin1:RGB 6x10 min. each
This image is 1900x1435 pixels covering 25.8 x 19.5 arcmin of sky

Officina Stellare RiDK 305 F7.9 OTA
SBIG STF8300M, AP GTO1200 mount, guided w/MaximDL
RA 18h 36m 25s, Dec -23° 54' 11"
Pos Angle +90° 38', FL 2414.2 mm, 0.814"/Pixel

Processed with PixInSight using IP4AP methodologies (www.ip4ap.com)

The globular cluster M22, pictured above, contains over 100,000 stars. These stars formed together and are gravitationally bound.
Stars orbit the center of the cluster, and the cluster orbits the center of our Galaxy. So far, about 140 globular clusters are known to exist in a roughly spherical halo
around the Galactic center. Globular clusters do not appear spherically distributed as viewed from the Earth, and this fact was a key point in the determination that
our Sun is not at the center of our Galaxy. Globular clusters are very old. There is a straightforward method of determining their age, and this nearly matches
the 13.7 billion-year age of our entire universe. (ref. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050627.html)