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Designations: M13, NGC 6205
Visual
Magnitude: 5.8
Size: 21
min
Distance: 23,400 light
years
Discoverer: Edmond Halley,
1714
Visual Description: M13 is generally
considered the finest globular cluster in the northern skies, mainly because it
is visible to the naked eye in a well-known grouping of stars that sails high
overhead in the summer sky. It is a swollen mass teeming with perhaps 300,000 to
a half-million suns spread across 140 light years or more; a typical globular
contains tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of stars. A relatively close
globular ( about the same distance of M5), the Great Hercules Cluster is
pleasingly bright. From dark skies and in good conditions, M13 is easily spotted
as a fuzzy "star" with the naked eye, though it can be seen as a perceptible
glow even through a light fog.
Seeing Conditions: Not Recorded
Telescope: Stellarvue
80m APO Refractor
Focal Length:
384 mm (480 mm X
.8 with focal reducer)
Mount: Takahashi
NJP 160
Camera: SBIG
ST-10XME
Exposure:
10 7-Minute exposures (Luminance) and 5 6-minute exposures for red,
green and blue (total of 30 minutes each color)
Other: SBIG
ST402ME for guiding
Image Processing: CCD Stack and Photoshop CS2
The Visual description of the M13 Globular Cluster was writen by Steven James O'Meara in the book "The Messier Objects" by Stephen James O'Meara. Page. 69. ISBN number 0-521-55332-6.
Copyright(c) 2007 Doug Sanqunetti. All rights reserved
