Tonantzintla 2/Pismis 26

[Preston Pendergraft]

I was surfing around at lunch on the Internet yesterday and I came across this globular. I have never heard of it. All I could find other then some pictures was an observation someone did with Orion 4.5in dob in Sedona AZ and a missed attempt with a C8 from Australia. There was also a reference to it on a observing list that Larry Mitchell did for the Texas Star Party.

So anyone seen this one or attempted it. The best I can find is that the globular is around 12.2 magnitude but is effected by the dust of the Milky Way.

[Jim Chandler]

I think you'll find that quite a few people observed it in May 2004 at TSP. Here's my log note from then:

25" f/5
330x
T6/10
S4/10

Seeing fluctuating wildly, but a mottled mass flickers in and out. Finally got a steady view for almost a minute. A few stars resolved.

[Preston Pendergraft]

Jim,
You think a 10in scope could pull this thing in. I had a hard time buying the 4.5in Orion saw it. I am just surprised that there are not more observations of this object if a 4.5in could detect it. Sounds like it was pretty tough with your 25in.

[Jim Chandler]

Yeah, that's a tough one. I was using a 25" on a lousy night at a very good site. Kind of hard to parse that one. But a 4.5", that's a stretch. I've encountered several instances of similarly disproportionate aperture comparisons, in which it became obvious that there simply weren't enough points of similarity in the views to have a productive discussion. A 1 or 2 degree fov in a 4" versus a 15 arcminute fov in a 25", things look really different.

[Talitha]

It looks like the 4.5" Sedona observation was made by Jakko Saloranta (http://www.kolumbus.fi/jaakko.saloranta/Deepsky/Extra/Ton2.html), an incredible observer with a rock-solid reputation.
Whenever he says he saw something, i definitely believe him. ;)

[Steve Gottlieb]

Here's a view I had from Australia in a 12". Still, even with it high up in the sky I described it as "very faint". Hard to believe it was seen in a 4.5".

12" (6/29/02 - Bargo, Australia): at 186x, this highly reddened globular appeared as a very faint glow, best viewed by keeping mag 4.3 Q Scorpii located 6' SE out of the field. Ton 2 appeared as round, diffuse glow, just 1' in diameter with a faint star superimposed and a few around the edges including a mag 11.5 star just off the south side [40" S of center]. More difficult than NGC 6380 which was viewed a few minutes afterwards.