NGC 6934

Also Known as: Caldwell 47

Object Type: Globular Cluster

Constellation: Delphinus

Distance from Earth: 52,000 Light years

Apparent Magnitude: 8.83

Coordinates: RA 20H 34M 11.37S DEC 07 deg 24 min 16.1 sec

Actual Size: 107 light years

Apparent Dimensions: 7.1 arc-minutes

Discovered by: This globular cluster was discovered by William Herschel on 24 September 1785 using his 18.7 inch reflecting telescope. He cataloged it as I 103 (class I = bright nebulae) and noted: «Very bright, large, gradually much brighter in the middle, easily resolvable, beautiful object.»
His son John listed the object in 1833 as a globular cluster with the designation h 2081.
Dreyer cataloged it in 1888 as NGC 6934

Description: NGC 6934 (also known as Caldwell 47) is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Delphinus, about 52,000 light-years distant from the Sun.
Globular clusters are large balls of (typically) a few hundred thousand ancient stars that exist on the edges of galaxies.
The cluster is following a highly eccentric orbit (with an eccentricity of 0.81) through the Milky Way along an orbital plane that is inclined by 73° to the galactic plane.
NGC 6934 is home to some of the most distant stars still to be part of our galactic system — in a sense, it is a far-flung suburb to the Milky Way’s city center.
NGC 6934 has an estimated mass is 295,000 times the mass of the Sun.
It is estimated that NGC 6934 is 10 billion years old.

Click Below Image(s) for Full Size:

The cluster is not bright enough to see with the naked eye, and even in ideal conditions it is very difficult to view with binoculars.
The globular is a difficult binocular object, ideally requiring dark skies. A small 80mm (3.1-inch) refractor shows a faint, clearly non-stellar circular patch of light. Just to the west of the cluster is a 9th mag. star.
NGC 6934 can be partially resolved with a 300mm (12-inch) telescope. At about 200x magnification dozens of stars are revealed, especially on nights of good seeing.
The cluster appears compressed and grainy. A very large 450mm (18-inch) scope at high powers will resolve some of the stars at the core.
However, it is a popular target for amateur astronomers as it can easily be observed using relatively inexpensive telescopes.
Best viewing is late summer or early fall..

Platesolve

NGC 6934 full size

NGC 6934 Cropped

Imaging Details
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