Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  HD119391  ·  M 3  ·  NGC 5272
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M 3, Astro Jim
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M 3

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M 3, Astro Jim
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M 3

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Description

Working on a Messier collection. Going after clusters gives me something to image when skies are less than perfect with high clouds.

One of the oldest and brightest clusters. M 3 is 32, 000 light years away, 11 billion years old and contains over 500,000 stars. It was the first object in the catalog discovered by Charles Messier.  It is one of the best studied globular clusters and is notable for an unusually high number of variable stars: 274. M 3 contains a high amount of heavier elements for a globular cluster.

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M 3, Astro Jim

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North Carolina Astronomers