M13 Great Hercules Globular Cluster

With all these recent clear skies it has been time for mee to set up my trusty telescope. This image of the globular cluster M13 was taken with my big, heavy Celestron C-11 scope.

 

Messier 13, or M13, is a globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules. As a result it is sometimes called the Great Hercules Cluster and is considered the most spectacular globular cluster in the northern skies. About 145 light-years in diameter, M13 is composed of several hundred thousand stars, with estimates varying from around 300,000 to over half a million. Compared to the stars in the neighbourhood of the Sun, the stars of the M13 population are more than a hundred times more densely packed. They are so close together that they sometimes collide and produce new stars.

 

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Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

 

Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C

Filter: ZWO UV/IR Cut filter

Focuser: ZWO EAF

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini guidecam

Guide via: ZWO OAG

 

Stacked from:

Lights 35 at 30 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Darks 30 at 30 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C

Flat 30 at 570ms, gain 101, temp -10C

Dark Flat 30 at 570ms, gain 101 temp -10C

 

Bortle 4 sky.

Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.

Processed in PixInsight

Captions added in Photoshop CS4

 

 

 

Done