It’s pretty darned amazing looking up into the core of the Milky way and gazing in wonder at the sea of stars behind M7.
Whoever said that “there are more stars in the sky then grains of sand on all the beaches on all the earth” needs only to show a disbeliever this photo!

Bowie fans will recognise the Starman himself, from the ‘Serious Moonlight’ tour graphic – dancing above the cluster!

Taken from light pollutionville, Melbourne, Australia.

Captured using Ekos on a Mac.

Processed in APP & PS CC 2020 – with Topaz NR
Taken from my light polluted suburban backyard in Melbourne.

Ptolemys cluster M7 LRGB

Capture Details

Telescope Takahashi TOA 130 + Flattener 67
Camera QSI 6162 WSG8
Mount Takahashi NJP Temma 2
Filters Chroma LRGB
Guiding Camera Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2
Integration time (Exposure) 5.0 hrs
Location Burwood, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Date June, 2020

About this Star Cluster

M7 has been known since antiquity; it was first recorded by the 2nd-century Greek-Roman astronomer Ptolemy, who described it as a nebula in 130 AD.
(Well never mind, he also thought the Earth was the centre of the universe, which revolved around it!)
Italian astronomer Giovanni Batista Hodierna observed it before 1654 and counted 30 stars in it.
In 1764, French astronomer Charles Messier catalogued the cluster as the seventh member in his list of comet-like objects.
English astronomer John Herschel described it as “coarsely scattered clusters of stars”.

 

Bowie fans will recognise the Starman himself, from the ‘Serious Moonlight’ tour graphic – dancing above the cluster!

- Wikipedia.