Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Hercules (Her)  ·  Contains:  Hercules Globular Cluster  ·  IC 4617  ·  M 13  ·  NGC 6205
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Glorious M13 Globular Cluster, Jeff Culp
Glorious M13 Globular Cluster
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Glorious M13 Globular Cluster

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Glorious M13 Globular Cluster, Jeff Culp
Glorious M13 Globular Cluster
Powered byPixInsight

Glorious M13 Globular Cluster

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Description

Located in Hercules, this globular cluster, one of the brightest of such at magnitude 5.8, is listed at about 22,500 light years away.  If our galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter, M13 is a fair distance away.  It is estimated to be made up of 300,000 to 500,000 stars.

This was one of my first DSO's I spotted as a child using a cheap 3" cardboard reflector, and saw this fuzzy smudge.  Wow I thought - if only I could see it up close. Now years later, I am still blown away at the beauty and colorful star patterns in this impressive display.   It includes a little galaxy IC 4617 at the bottom of this image, and one astrophotographer mentioned this is 530 million light years distant!

I try to imagine for those standing on a world orbiting a star in the center of this majestic and dense star field, what their night sky would look like...

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Glorious M13 Globular Cluster, Jeff Culp