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M13 Great Cluster

Branden_Rapp

By Branden_Rapp
in Observing - Deep Sky

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Branden_Rapp

Branden_Rapp

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Believe it or not, tonight was my first ever look at the Great Hercules Cluster and I must say what an awe-inspiring sight that is! I would have to chalk that one up as my new favorite. Absolutely magnificent!

ff3b5be7e77e0aaba5b1280520433a7c.jpg

I used my Orion SkyQuest XX14i 20mm Sirius Plossl at 82.5x

Location is Lyons, KS USA

Seeing was okay

Transparency okay

At 0746 UTC the sky became too cloudy to continue observations.

The two bright stars to the left and right in my field of view are HD 150679 and HD 150998 respectively. I would say the cluster is about magnitude 6. If I looked off to the side of the location of it I could see a very faint, fuzzy star with my naked eye is how I came to that conclusion. Very bright, fuzzy central core but despite fuzziness I could discern a great number of stars. Most were easy to make out with the exception of the cluster core. The cluster looked very large in the eyepiece. Again, very magnificent view for my first observation of a globular cluster!

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DRT

DRT

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Interesting wiki. I was unaware that the Aricebo Observatory sent a message there

Very interesting. The message was sent in 1976 so with the cluster being 22.2 light years away the response should be here in 2020 :grin:

I remember my first view of M13 - it is still the biggest wow moment I have had looking through a telescope.

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Branden_Rapp

Branden_Rapp

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Interesting wiki. I was unaware that the Aricebo Observatory sent a message there

Very interesting. The message was sent in 1976 so with the cluster being 22.2 light years away the response should be here in 2020 :grin:

 

I remember my first view of M13 - it is still the biggest wow moment I have had looking through a telescope.

22.2 Kilolightyears. 22,2020 AD! Lol

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swamp thing

swamp thing

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Hi Brandon

Great report and sketch. You should pick up M13's companion galaxy (NGC6207) in your 14" scope. They make a fine study together in larger apertures. Have a look for it in your low power eyepiece next time out :)

Clear skies

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Branden_Rapp

Branden_Rapp

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That would be a sight to see, indeed! A little too hazy last night for galaxies. The bright ones I could see. I took a brief look at M84 and M86 and the eyes (and what a sight they are all clustered up in the same FOV!!) But the dimmer ones were indistinguishable in the haze.

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John

John

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Nice sketch and report Branden_Rapp :smiley:

Globular clusters are an object type that really seems to benefit noticably from aperture increases. M13 and M97 look practically like the images you see of them with my 12" dob at 199x magnification. Frankly I rarely observe them with my smaller aperture scopes now.

I had the pleasure of observing M13 with a 20" dobsonian a few years back at an SGL star party. Now thats a view that I won't forget in a hurry :grin:

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Branden_Rapp

Branden_Rapp

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I didn't really get into deep sky observations until a couple of years ago. I was always looking at Luna and the planets and was fascinated by them, you know. My dad and I always went out and looked together and it made it fun. I got into DSO's after I decided to try a little experiment. I pointed my scope in the direction of M42, and I was hooked from that moment on!!! Seeing that green tinted wisp with 4 bright stars in the middle of it just left me almost in a state of shock. :smiley:

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Branden_Rapp

Branden_Rapp

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It's really quite funny to me, all the articles I've read on Sky & Telescope and One Minute Astronomer and the like. You always read phrases about M31 or M1 describing them as "unimpressive" in a telescope. Well they're all pretty impressive to me!!!

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ghostdance

ghostdance

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M13 has been delightful this past few clear nights, as has its nearby companion M95. I think being almost overhead has benefitted my view, as has using my 6" rather than my previous 4.5" to view it.

Excellent sketch Branden, which prompted my last two sessions to revisit Hercules as it clears my neighbour's roof. Cheers!

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John

John

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My experience is that M1 isn't very impressive purely in terms of a visual object, unless you have very large aperture and very dark skies. It's impressive though when you know that it is a remnant of a supernova and ponder on the cataclysmic event that created it.

M31 is an odd one. While it's bright and relatively easy to find even with the naked eye on a dark night, personally I feel that galaxies such as M81 and M82 or even M33 can be more interesting to observe. M31 is perhaps more impressive though large binoculars than with a scope.

The bright globular clusters seen with a decent aperture do seem able to impress even non-astronomers though. A tightly packed ball of 100,000+ stars resolved to the core is quite a sight :smiley:

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DRT

DRT

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The bright globular clusters seen with a decent aperture do seem able to impress even non-astronomers though. A tightly packed ball of 100,000+ stars resolved to the core is quite a sight :smiley:

Indeed. I love these objects as they are one of the few things you can look at that involve so many objects that you can actually see inside them. I find galaxies pretty uninspiring unless I manage to engage "averted imagination", and open clusters sometimes look like the components have no real relationship, but globs are much easier to comprehend as they are simply a big ball of stars floating above or below the galactic disk.

And glob season is just around the corner :grin:

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