M79 (NGC 1904) is a globular cluster in the constellation Lepus. It is still low in the east early in the evening in January and at magnitude 7.7 is not visible to the naked eye.

M79 in Lepus

The picture was taken with a fully modified Canon Rebel camera on a TEC 140 telescope from the Alpenglow-Torrey House Observatory in the dark sky community of Torrey, Utah (Bortle 2-3). 12 two-minute sub frames stacked in Deep Sky Stacker = 24 minute photo. Unguided, no calibration frames.

As a globular cluster it is at an unusual location in the sky. Most globs circle the Galaxy center, not along the plane of the Galaxy like M79. As such they are closer to the center versus M79 which is about 60,000 light years from the center. “In 2003, it was found that M79 is perhaps a new immigrant into the globular cluster system of our Milky Way: It may come from, or still be a member, of the remnant globular cluster system of the Canis Major Dwarf galaxy, a dwarf galaxy which is currently undergoing a very close encounter with our Galaxy, and in a state of dissolution. Together with M79, three more globular clusters are suspected to have immigrated from the Canis Major Dwarf.”-RASC

Canis Major Dwarf: A New Closest Galaxy Illustration Credit & Copyright: R. Ibata (Strasbourg Observatory, ULP) et al., 2MASS, NASA

Astrometry.net

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