It’s safe to say that most amateur astronomers consider the great Hercules cluster also known as Messier 13 or M13 to be the most beautiful globular cluster in the northern hemisphere.
More than 500000 stars swirl in this cluster located about 25000 light-years from home towards the constellation hercules with an apparent magnitude of 5.8
When you look at M13 or other globular clusters, you look at stars that are about 12 to 13 billion years old. It’s almost as old as the universe.
Globular clusters orbit the Milky Way galaxy outside the galactic disk tens of thousands of light-years away. In contrast, open star clusters are bathed in the galactic disk and are usually home to a few hundred to a thousand stars.
Technical details:
– PlaneWave CDK 12.5′ (318mm) at F/D 8
– 10 micron GM 2000 combi Mount
– Zwo asi 294 mm pro
– Antlia filters
– Sampling: 0.38 arcsec
– 65x3x60s RGB : 3 h 15 min
– DOF: 31/149/25
– Date: 1st April 2022
– Location : Oukaimeden, Morocco
