L 16 x 30 sec 1x1 bin, RGB 6 x 30 sec 2x2 bin - Unguided

Omega Centauri is the largest, brightest and most massive globular cluster of the 150+ globulars in the Milky Way galaxy. A fairly close object at only 17,000 light years from earth, its several million stars span 150 light years in diameter and shine with a combined brightness of magnitude 3.70, thus making it a naked eye object. The dense core, a solid blur of light to earth-based telescopes, is tightly packed with an amazing average separation of about 0.10 lights years between stars. The apparent diameter subtended by Omega Centauri is about 45 arc-minutes, which is larger than a full Moon! The only globular cluster in our Local Group of galaxies that is more luminous than it is G1 (Mayall II) in the Andromeda Galaxy, which presents itself as a minute smudge of light even in the largest telescopes because of its great distance (2.4 million light years) from Earth.

From the latitude of Southern California this magnificent object barely creeps up 8° above the horizon at meridian transit, making it a very difficult object to capture photographically. Imaging through a column of six to seven air masses is tedious at best, with any reasonable chance of success limited to only the nights of very best seeing.