| Telescope / Lens | TEC 140 f/7 980mm; TMB 80 f/6 manual guiding |
| Mount Type | Astro-Physics 1200 mount |
| Camera | Canon 20D & Angle C magnifier |
| Filters | N/A |
| Film | Digital |
| Exposure | 5 minutes x 8 stacked |
| Processing | Photoshop CS2 Cropped; 2017 CS6 & CCDStack |
| Date | 9-11-2007 |
| Location | June Mountain, South of Eagles Rest, Oregon |
| Conditions | 3232′ magnitude 6.2 Skies; Clear & Steady |
The brightest globular cluster in the northern latitudes, the Globular Star Cluster in Hercules M13 (NGC 6205) shines at magnitude 5.8 and is visible to the naked eye from a dark sky site. It is approximately 20 arc-minutes in diameter with around 300,000 stars. Located in western edge of the Keystone in the constellation of Hercules. It takes an 11-12″ telescope to resolve the stars decently, like diamond dust on black velvet. Go to a 14″ or larger at a dark sky site and it is a real treasure! The Great Hercules Globular Cluster of stars lies 22,200 light years from earth. This is roughly one quarter the width of our Milky Way Galaxy.
The larger galaxy, upper right-hand corner is NGC 6207 at magnitude 12.2 , 3 x 1.2 arc-minutes and 45 million Light years distant, about the distance of the Virgo Galaxy Group . The smaller galaxy, just to the upper right of the globular cluster, in between M13 and NGC 6207. This galaxy is IC 4617 magnitude 15.5, 1.2′ x 22″, at 489 million light years away. A visually challenging object through an eyepiece.
DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras are really opening new doors in astrophotography and the Canon 20d and 20da really preform. Currently in 2018, the Canon 6d (full size) and 7d Mark II (APS) have really made monumental strides in Resolution, QE (Quantum Efficiency), Noise, etc.
New M13 Image 8/14/2022
Additional data from imaging with TEC 140 f/4.55 f 637mm (APEX-L) SQM: 20.85. Telescopes / Optics: TEC 140mm f/4.55 RGB= 3 x 5 minute; L= 10x x 5 minute -20°c. Total LRGB= 95 minutes. This data was added to existing DSLR & CCD data to go deeper and improve resolution. FWHM: 1.56 average. Processed with CCDStack, Photoshop CS6, Pixel-Insight. Final image has approximately 3.5 hours of data. Several background galaxies are clearly visible.