An alternative view of M13

[JamesF]

Not the greatest image by a long chalk, but I took it because I was testing some kit out this evening. It does, I think, begin to give some of idea of just what a stupendous number of stars there actually are in M13.

James

[Aenima]

Awesome image james, im assuming the camera is mono?

But actually the other day I was just thinking about clusters and how they clump together, is it a ball of stars? are they held in place by gravity? and what might the middle look like or be like?

It isnt something i'm knowledgeable on, also you seemed the right person to ask while the subject is up.

But that is definitely a nice pic, though

Regards

Aenima

[foundaplanet]

Nice one.

The part that still gets me though is that they reckon that even at the centre there are only a hundred stars within 3 light years of each other.

[JamesF]

The camera is mono, yes. I had some problems yesterday with Ha solar imaging with my ASI120MM, so I was experimenting to find a setup that will work.

James

[JamesF]

Meant to add, I don't really know much about globular clusters at the moment. Something piqued my interest recently and as there are quite a few in the summer sky I thought I'd have a go at imaging them. Reading up about them is one of the things I want to do when I'm on holiday next month.

James

[steppenwolf]

I love globular clusters, so much going on in them in addition to the stars!

An excellent image that has also captured some of the dark lanes within M13, the most 'famous' being the 'propellor' (no it's not the cross of stars at the centre!).

Nicely captured.

Sent from my iPhone from somewhere dark .....

[JamesF]

For comparison, here's M92:

James

[JamesF]

I love globular clusters, so much going on in them in addition to the stars!

An excellent image that has also captured some of the dark lanes within M13, the most 'famous' being the 'propellor' (no it's not the cross of stars at the centre!).

Nicely captured.

Thank you Steve.

These were really images (I have M3 and M5 that I haven't processed yet) for just getting my head around an alternative camera/software setup for solar Ha, but I'm feeling quite drawn to them from an imaging point of view. It strikes me that they're quite "giving" for the novice mono imager in that long exposure times aren't really required and it's therefore quite possible to collect enough RGB data for a reasonable image in a matter of two or three hours. Once the obsy is set up I think I might have a bit of a "project" on my hands

James

[1parsec]

Nice close in view. The summer globulars just blow your socks off don't they !

Dave.

[steppenwolf]

With globulars there is a strong argument for taking two sets of data, one set with short exposures to capture detail in the core and a second set with longer exposures to capture the dimmer peripheral detail. The two sets can then be combined in PS or The Gimp using layers.

That said, your image is doin' just dandy as it is!

Sent from my iPhone from somewhere dark .....

[WaveSoarer]

Very nice images James.

[fwm891]

Nice images James - at least you had some clear stuff to view through

[JamesF]

Nice images James - at least you had some clear stuff to view through

I'm surprised you didn't, Francis. You're not exactly far away. We must have just got lucky with a clear patch. I was wondering how the forecast could have said "heavy cloud" for the early evening and into the small hours when it was as clear as a bell...

James

[JamesF]

And here's M3. I've abandoned M5 as it was quite low at the time and the data isn't very good at all.

I find myself idly wondering if I couldn't use this as an L layer and overlay my DSLR images from a few weeks ago for colour. Probably a bit of challenge for my photoshop skills, that

James

[Gina]

I'm not much into globular clusters but I'll probably have a go at them sometime. I guess they might be better to have a go at when there's passing cloud as I gather they need less time than nebulae. So I'm not in a very good position to judge - these images look fine though

[Macavity]

Fascinating objects. Whatever the global theoretical explanation, many people see "structure" in these objects. Sometimes full of "star chains" - Sometimes completely... amorphous? A fascinating environment - All those stars within a light year or so...

[Aenima]

Excellent imaging James, I really like clusters and while I cant imagine what they are made up of, they still have a definite allure visually. I recently tested a new dslr by snapping a couple of short exposures unguided of m3 and 13 and although tracking was terrible and processing not up to much but its now something I also intend to return to as an imaging target. A lot of them up there, more than I realised!

Best of luck with the imaging, and clear skies all round!

Regards

Aenima

[kirkster501]

So many folks do M13. But with good reason IMO. Its utterly spectacular and such a lovely and satisfying object to shoot. The number of stars in there is incredible. Just imagine being on a planet round one of those stars and what the night sky would be like!

[JamesF]

With so much light around I wonder if you'd ever have nighttime? And if you didn't, would you realise the wider universe (or even the rest of the galaxy) existed?

James

[fwm891]

I'm surprised you didn't, Francis. You're not exactly far away. We must have just got lucky with a clear patch. I was wondering how the forecast could have said "heavy cloud" for the early evening and into the small hours when it was as clear as a bell...

James

Lucky you I sit between Exmoor and Dartmoor and the cloud seems to get funnelled in my direction :sad:

[SnakeyJ]

Great images James and these are very interesting objects indeed - especially when you read up on them. I've had a couple of runs at these myself, though there is a bit of a lx bug with the current qhy5l-ii drivers which causes frequent hangs and much frustration. When it does work the mt9m034's sensitivity yields stacks of detail, though some more efficient cooling to reduce noise would be a big bonus.

What exp/gain were you using? Five and 10 secs @ 95% work for me, though the buggy driver is hampering experiment.

Look forward to seeing some RGB or LRGB data on this and hope I can post some comparison data once the new sdk drivers are released.

[JamesF]

Don't have the exposure details to hand at the moment I'm afraid, Jake. I'm madly shifting stuff around to make room for new data on my laptop when we're on holiday. When I find them again I'll let you know.

James