Globulars Star Clusters of the Milky Way
Here we journey to the Milky Way's globular
clusters—all 157 of them. Some of these
globulars, as you will see in the image links below, are barely
detectable, if at all, because of obscuring dust and gas (and even
dense forests of foreground stars). Others are very small,
probably because they are very far away and
obscured by foreground material. Still others look remarkably
like many of the NGC globulars; this is particularly true in the deep
southern hemisphere of the sky which even at the time of the NGC was
still relatively neglected. Not included in this list are several suspected
globulars because they have not yet been confirmed. Some of these
have properties reminiscent of both globular and galactic star clusters, so
we are not quite sure yet what we are looking at.
47 of the 88 constellations (53%)
contain globular clusters. Adjacent constellations Ophiuchus and
Sagittarius, which are tied for having both the most Messier and the
most Messier+NGC globulars, are not equal when we consider
all
the Milky Way's globular clusters. Sagittarius emerges as the clear
winner with 35. Ophiuchus has 25, and Scorpius 19.
These three adjacent constellations combined harbor half
of all the globular clusters in the sky! Perhaps this is not too
surprising considering that the center of our Milky Way galaxy is
located 27,000 light years from here in Sagittarius near the Sagittarius-Ophiuchus-Scorpius border.
Here is an object-by-object tour of all the Milky Way's globular clusters,
grouped by constellation. The constellation charts are courtesy
of the International
Astronomical Union in collaboration with Roger
Sinnott, Rick
Fienberg, Alan
MacRobert, and Sky & Telescope
magazine.
The photographic atlas of these extraordinary objects has been provided
by wikisky.org. The Sagittarius-Ophiuchus-Scorpius map linked above was created with Voyager 4.5.5 for Mac OS X, from Carina Software & Instruments.
Apus
NGC 6101
IC 4499
Aquarius
M2
M72
NGC 7492
Aquila
NGC 6749
NGC 6760
GLIMPSE-C01
Palomar 11
Ara
NGC 6352
NGC 6362
NGC 6397
ESO-SC06
FSR 1735
Auriga
Palomar 2
Boötes
NGC 5466
Canes
Venatici
M3
Capricornus
M30
Palomar 12
Carina
NGC 2808
Centaurus
NGC 5139 (Omega
Centauri)
NGC 5286
Ruprecht 106
Cepheus
Palomar 1
Cetus
Whiting 1
Chamaeleon
ESO 37-01 (E3)
Columba
NGC 1851
Coma Berenices
M53
NGC 4147
NGC 5053
Corona
Australis
NGC 6541
Delphinus
NGC 6934
NGC 7006
Eridanus
Eridanus
Gemini
Koposov 2
Hercules
M13
M92
NGC 6229
Palomar 14
Horologium
NGC 1261
Arp-Madore 1
Hydra
M68
NGC 5694
Arp-Madore 4
Lepus
M79
Libra
NGC 5897
Lupus
NGC 5824
NGC 5927
NGC 5986
Lynx
NGC 2419
Lyra
M56
Musca
NGC 4372
NGC 4833
Norma
NGC 5946
Van den Bergh-Hagen 176
(BH 176)
Lynga 7
Ophiuchus
M9
M10
M12
M14
M19
M62
M107
NGC 6235
NGC 6284
NGC 6287
NGC 6293
NGC 6304
NGC 6316
NGC 6325
NGC 6342
NGC 6355
NGC 6356
NGC 6366
NGC 6401
NGC 6426
NGC 6517
IC 1257
HP 1
Palomar 6
Palomar 15
Pavo
NGC 6752
Pegasus
M15
Palomar 13
Puppis
NGC 2298
Pyxis
Pyxis
Sagitta
M71
Palomar 10
Sagittarius
M22
M28
M54
M55
M69
M70
M75
NGC 6440
NGC 6522
NGC 6528
NGC 6540
NGC 6544
NGC 6553
NGC 6558
NGC 6569
NGC 6624
NGC 6638
NGC 6642
NGC 6652
NGC 6717
NGC 6723
2MS-GC01
2MS-GC02
Arp 2
Van den Bergh-Hagen 261
(BH 261)
Djorgovski 2 (Djorg 2)
GLIMPSE-C02
Palomar 8
Terzan 5
Terzan 7
Terzan 8
Terzan 9
Terzan 10
Terzan 12
UKS 1
Scorpius
M4
M80
NGC 6139
NGC 6144
NGC 6256
NGC 6380
NGC 6388
NGC 6441
NGC 6453
NGC 6496
Djorgovski 1 (Djorg 1)
ESO 452-SC11
Liller 1
Terzan 1
Terzan 2
Terzan 3
Terzan 4
Terzan 6
Tonantzintla 2 (Ton 2)
Sculptor
NGC 288
Scutum
NGC 6712
Serpens (Caput)
M5
Palomar 5
Serpens (Cauda)
NGC 6535
NGC 6539
IC 1276
Sextans
Palomar 3
Telescopium
NGC 6584
Tucana
NGC 104 (47 Tuc)
NGC 362
Ursa Major
Palomar 4
Vela
NGC 3201
Virgo
NGC 5634
Koposov 1
David Oesper
6/29/13