Imagine living on a planet in a solar system with 15 suns in your sky and virtually no night time as they surround your entire planet. This is what it would be like to live inside the Hercules star cluster, (aka M13, Messier 13). This is what I'm thinking while photographing the star cluster.

Radius: 72.502 light years
Coordinates: RA 16h 41m 41s | Dec +36° 27′ 35″
Apparent magnitude (V): 5.8
Distance to Earth: 22,180 light years
Class: V
Constellation: Hercules
Estimated age: 11.65 Gyr

"Like shiny flakes sparkling in a snow globe, over 100,000 stars whirl within the globular cluster M13, one of the brightest star clusters visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Located 25,000 light-years from Earth with an apparent magnitude of 5.8, this glittering metropolis of stars in the constellation Hercules can be spotted with a pair of binoculars most easily in July.

The English astronomer Edmond Halley, best known for recognizing the periodicity of the comet that bears his name, discovered M13 in 1714. When Charles Messier added M13 to his catalog in 1764, he was convinced that the nebulous object did not contain any stars at all. Because they are so densely packed together, the cluster’s individual stars were not resolved until 1779. Near the core of this cluster, the density of the stellar population is about a hundred times greater than the density in the neighborhood of our sun. These stars are so crowded that they can, at times, run into each other and even form a new star. The resulting “blue stragglers” appear to be younger than the other stars in their immediate vicinity and are of great scientific interest to astronomers."
(science.nasa.gov)
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Optics: Celestron EdgeHD 8"
Guide Scope: SV165 Mini 30mm/120mm F4
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Pro
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120MM
Filter:  Antlia Triband RGB filter
Tracking Mount: ZWO AM3
Acquisition: ASIAir Plus
Power: Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox
Sky: Bortle Class 6
Transparency: Average to Above Average (per Astrospheric)
Seeing:  Average to Above Average  (per Astrospheric)
Exposure Time: 2:00 minutes X 163 frames = 5hrs. 46 mins (Gain 120 @ -11.2F)