The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (aka M13) is amoung the best globular star clusters in the northern hemisphere of the sky to observe and photograph. Toward the lower left of this photograph is a distant spiral galaxy known as NGC6207. An even fainter galaxy (IC4617) can be seen just to the left of the center of the photograph above a star. M13 is around 25,000 light-years away from us within our Milkyway galaxy, while NGC6207 (45 million light-years) and IC4617 are much farther away outside of the Milkyway.
This photograph was produced by using Adobe Photoshop to average seven images together to improve the signal to noise ratio (lower the background noise). This creates a smoother sky background making faint objects easier to see.
Photographer: Rick Scott
Date: April 23, 2006
Location: Near Florence Junction, Arizona
Camera: Canon EOS 20D digital camera
Lens: Home-made 9.8 inch f/4.63 Lurie-Houghton Telescope
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Exposure: 7 x 30 seconds at f/4.63 (unguided)
Camera Mode: ISO 800 RAW
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS2 for RAW conversion and image processing
Photograph by Rick Scott.
Updated: 26 May 2006