Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Hercules (Her)  ·  Contains:  44 Her  ·  44 eta Her  ·  HD149732  ·  HD149749  ·  HD149750  ·  HD149772  ·  HD149862  ·  HD149930  ·  HD149956  ·  HD150119  ·  HD150293  ·  HD150391  ·  HD150410  ·  HD150430  ·  HD150462  ·  HD150463  ·  HD150491  ·  HD150510  ·  HD150566  ·  HD150679  ·  HD150749  ·  HD150827  ·  HD150998  ·  HD151087  ·  HD151144  ·  HD151428  ·  HD151482  ·  HD151501  ·  HD151614  ·  HD151749  ·  And 313 more.
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M13 Hercules Cluster #4, Molly Wakeling
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M13 Hercules Cluster #4

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M13 Hercules Cluster #4, Molly Wakeling
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M13 Hercules Cluster #4

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Description

M13, the Great Hercules Cluster!
M13 is a globular cluster located in the constellation of -- you guessed it -- Hercules, and it's actually pretty easy to spot in binoculars from somewhat dark skies as it lies almost directly on the line between two bright stars that make part of the square that is the hero's torso -- Eta Herculis and Zeta Herculis. Under dark skies, you will often catch it in the corner of your eye without any optical aid. Globular clusters are dense groups of stars held together by gravity, M13 contains several hundred thousand stars in a volume only 145 lightyears across -- there are only a few thousand stars in that same volume around Earth. At the core of globular clusters, stars are typically only 0.33 lightyears apart -- 13 times closer than Alpha Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor, is to Earth.
It is not well understood how globular clusters came to be -- they are often the oldest objects in a galaxy, and no new stars are born within them. But many globs have multiple star populations, indicating a multitude of origins for those stars. M13 is estimated to be 11.65 billion years old, full of ancient, low-metal stars.

There are also a *ton* of galaxies in the background of this frame -- we are looking pretty well above the plane of the galaxy here, so we can see out into deep space with better clarity and catch many thousands of galaxies.

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M13 Hercules Cluster #4, Molly Wakeling