The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, also known as M13, is the 13th entry in Charles Messier's catalog of objects that are not comets. It was discovered in 1714 by Edmond Halley. M13 is a gravitationally bound group of stars and contains several hundred thousand stars. It is relatively bright and large because it is only 23,000 light-years from Earth. Toward the upper right corner is a galaxy known as NGC 6207 that is 50 million light-years away. There are several other but very small and dim galaxies in the photograph. North is to the right.
Photographer: Rick Scott
Date / Time: July 7, 2020
Time (photo 1): 3:52 AM
Time (photo 2): 4:07 AM
Camera: Canon EOS 60Da
Lens: Canon EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS USM camera lens
Focal Length (photo 1): 200 mm (cropped)
Focal Length (photo 2): 195 mm (cropped)
Exposure (photo 1): 6 x 8 sec, f/4.0, ISO 1600 in raw mode (stacked)
Exposure (photo 2): 4 sec, f/4.0, ISO 1600 in raw mode
Processed in Adobe Photoshop CS6.
Updated: July 16, 2020