Jun 092015
Long identified as a tightly grouped open star cluster, spectroscopic analysis in the 1970’s showed this group of stars is a loosely grouped globular cluster. It is located in the constellation Sagitta (The Arrow) and is about 13,000 light-years from the Sun. At that distance, the cluster is about 27 light-years in diameter.
NGC 6838 (M 71)[C:52x30s]
This image shows the cluster viewed through the disk of the Milky Way. Software analysis detects over 12,000 stars in the image.