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First glimpse of M13! Wow.

SacRiker

By SacRiker
in Observing - Reports

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SacRiker

SacRiker

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Last night I decided to focus on a couple of easy targets (splitting polaris and alkalurops) after a night of abject failure the night before. I managed to easily split the targets (almost split the alkalurops B/C stars) and was feeling pretty good about things. Then I noticed that the top 2 stars of the keystone were visible -- usually the keystone is completely hidden behind some trees. I anxiously aimed my telrad in the general direction of M13...looked into the finder and saw some faint fuzziness...I had it! I looked into my 25mm and was blown away. I can't even really describe what I saw, other than to say it was like fluffy cotton candy made out of diamonds. It had a real 3D appearance to it. Amazing. I also used my 15 and 8mm...the 15 was probably the best. This was even with a pretty big moon out.

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cloudsweeper

cloudsweeper

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Open and globular clusters are indeed beautiful and very rewarding.  Globs in particular improve with magnification.  And clusters are still good to view when the Moon is out.

Carry on enjoying the wonders of the sky!

Doug.

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PHIL53

PHIL53

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Good job ! Suggest you could try another one, higher in the sky: M3, a wonderful globular easy to find almost midway on a straight line from Arcturus (Bootes) to Cor Caroli (Canes Venatici) and perhaps later in the night (or better yet, a few weeks from now) M5, south east from Arcturus...

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SacRiker

SacRiker

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13 minutes ago, PHIL53 said:

Good job ! Suggest you could try another one, higher in the sky: M3, a wonderful globular easy to find almost midway on a straight line from Arcturus (Bootes) to Cor Caroli (Canes Venatici) and perhaps later in the night (or better yet, a few weeks from now) M5, south east from Arcturus...

Thanks -- I was lucky enough to spot M3 a couple of weeks ago. It was much harder to find than 13. I might have another look now that I have some higher power EPs.

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D Wright

D Wright

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Well done, It still blows me away now. The first time I saw it I was lucky enough to be under true dark skies at Kielder Northumberland with no moon and was looking at it with a 20mm with 2x Barlow, simply beautiful.

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Hadron

Hadron

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I've just had my first viewing of m13 as well (my first globular cluster as well truth be told) and I must say it was a somewhat impressive sight. Being relatively inexperienced at this game I've tended to stick to the easy to find stuff in the past (planets, brighter/more obvious double stars and some of the simpler dos' like m42/3) but tonight after admiring Jupiter, Mars and Saturn I decided to be a bit more adventurous. M13 was certainly one of the highlights along with catching an iridium flare in the eyepiece whilst rooting around Cassiopeia (that had me wondering what was going on for a moment or two) :icon_biggrin:

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Richard Hather

Richard Hather

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I love M13 being relatively new to astronomy myself 3-4 months to be exact, M5 and M15 are amazing as well ☺️

I was the same though I viewed the planets and the moon sessions after session thinking it couldn't get any better.

Until of course I was introduced to M13, I have also sketched M13/M15 in my first ever sketching session which I found rewarding I will pm you the Sketches if you like as I don't want to hijack your post ☺️

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SacRiker

SacRiker

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6 hours ago, Richard Hather said:

I love M13 being relatively new to astronomy myself 3-4 months to be exact, M5 and M15 are amazing as well ☺️

I was the same though I viewed the planets and the moon sessions after session thinking it couldn't get any better.

Until of course I was introduced to M13, I have also sketched M13/M15 in my first ever sketching session which I found rewarding I will pm you the Sketches if you like as I don't want to hijack your post ☺️

Please go ahead and post the sketches here. Would love to see them. I saw M13 again tonight! Also found M5 for the first time. Oddly enough I could not locate M92...even though it seems like it should be easy.

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Richard Hather

Richard Hather

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Thank you saganite and Sacriker here's a link to a YouTube video I found extremely informative I actually purchased a log book and of course the required tools to be able to sketch the DSOs going of this video.

I actually studied Art and design for a year at college when I was 17 this is 13 years ago so for me it's great to get back sketching definitely a passion of mine that can combine with this one.

Only advise I can give is take your time and don't get frustrated ☺️

Regards

Richard

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PHIL53

PHIL53

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On 29/5/2016 at 09:15, SacRiker said:

Oddly enough I could not locate M92...even though it seems like it should be easy.

Not really as easy as M 13 !

I have made myself a mental cross-roads to find M92, using naked eye stars, with a line from Eta (44Her) to Iota (85Her) and another going from Pi (67Her) to the Dragon's Head Rastaban (Beta Draconis): using the 26mm wide angle eyepiece or similar, you can't miss it ! See attached map.

M 92.png

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