Unlikely luck and Messier 13

[DHEB]

Here comes another result from the beautiful moonless night we had here in Sweden on 2015-05-04. This time with M13, one amongst the most beautiful objects in the northern sky. This cluster was at a higher altitude than the previously shown image of M5, it is brighter and I also used 18 frames, instead of just 10, so the image is understandably of better quality than that of M5. As you see, the background sky isn't dark. This is because by this time of the year we do not have astronomical darkness anymore at 60N. As before, Nikon D40X DSLR fitted with Baader MKIII coma corrector, at the primary focus of a 200 mm f/5 Newtonian (SW 200 PDS) mounted on an EQ5 dual axis mount.

Humble as it is, I am quite satisfied with this image because it incorporates many invisible small achievements: good mechanical balance, good polar alignment, good collimation, optimal focusing (with Bahtinov mask), proper centering, and better digital processing; all learned the hard way in less than a year experimenting with astrophotography, and also from the experiences of others told in this forum. Now the scope is packed for the summer!

Clear skies!

[seo]

M-13 is well framed and focused. Nice shot.

[DHEB]

1 minute ago, seo said:

M-13 is well framed and focused. Nice shot.

Thanks! Still learning!

[wimvb]

Have to agree: very nice image, you succeeded with everything you allready mentioned.

Couldn't resist to try to get rid of this rediculous bright background we now have, so I downloaded your image and neutralized the background. Then boosted contrast a little.

Neutralizing the background brings out the diffrent coloured stars a little better. Hope you don't mind.

[DHEB]

19 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Have to agree: very nice image, you succeeded with everything you allready mentioned.

Couldn't resist to try to get rid of this rediculous bright background we now have, so I downloaded your image and neutralized the background. Then boosted contrast a little.

Neutralizing the background brings out the diffrent coloured stars a little better. Hope you don't mind.

Thats fine! Looks good!

[laudropb]

Very nice capture.

[DHEB]

7 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Very nice capture.

Thanks laudropb!