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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 2244641" data-attributes="member: 2205">The absolute magnitude of a galaxy is way beyond that of a globular cluster.  M31 (Andromeda) is at -22, I believe, for instance.  And several galaxies are visible to the naked eye as it is (including Andromeda).  Shorten the distance tremendously, as I suggest, and it would indeed dominate the sky as I've described.  I don't know why you suppose that the spiral would be only a dim glow.  The spiral itself would be as bright as the Milky Way on a clear night far away from any lights, which is pretty spectactular, and the central bulge/nucleus would be dramatically brighter still.Yes, but conditions in globular clusters are such that it is extremely unlikely that any planets exist.  Because of the various gravitational interactions, a stable orbit around a star would be extremely difficult.  Not only that, the barrage of cosmic rays would probably fry any attempt at the development of life on any planet that did manage to maintain its position.  And then, the more dramatic interactions; stars going nova, stars going supernova, stars colliding and forming blue stragglers, etc. makes any already difficult planet extremely unlikely to be able to harbor any life like we know it.  And finally, globular clusters are generally all part of extremely old, red and orange giant type stars, which means they've swollen, shed off their outer layers, and undergone all the various stages of stellar evolution already that would blast any planets to cinders to say nothing of the life on them.  No, I've thought about the concept of a planet in a globular cluster, but really the only thing about it would be that the night sky isn't very dark, because a lot of very bright stars would cover the sky all the time.  That's not nearly the effect I want, and it's also scientifically implausable.</blockquote>

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