Filaments of stars in M55

[kerry]

I noticed in the September 18th APOD picture of M55 that there are filaments of stars in what appear to be preferred directions. That is not only are there filaments but there are often parallel filaments. For example there are many horizontal filaments which I think are more obvious if you view the picture from the side. Am I seeing things or are the filaments there. And does anyone have an explanaintion?

[Dan Cordell]

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to. Could you try and point it out a bit better?

[kerry]

I made a negative of the image and boxed off what I thought were some of the more impressive filaments. Unfortunately I have no facility to post the image.

One long filament starts a bit to the left of the red star in the upper right hand corner and goes about a quarter of the way across the image towards the center of the picture. It has an angle of about 25 degrees.

[BMAONE]

I SEE A POSSIBLE FILAMENT (STRING OF STARS) ABOUT THE SAME BRIGHTNESS RUNNING (ASSUMING NORTH IS UP) FROM A DISTANCE EQUAL TO ABOUT 2.5 TIMES THE SIZE OF THE RED STAR IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER TOWARDS THE WEST FROM THE STAR THEN TRAVELING IN A NORTH WESTERLY DIRECTION A DISTANCE OF ABOUT 13 TIMES THE SIZE OF THE RED STAR CONTAINING APPROX 28 STARS OF EQUAL BRIGHTNESS.