Messier 3 - Half a million stars

[Laurin Dave]

From unexpectedly clear skies on Tuesday night..   Globular cluster Messier 3 in Canes Venatici was discovered on May 3, 1764, and was the first Messier object to be discovered by Charles Messier himself. Messier originally mistook the object for a nebula without stars. This mistake was corrected after the stars were resolved by William Herschel around 1784.

This cluster is one of the largest and brightest. It is made up of around 500,000 stars, is 90 light years across, estimated to be 11.4 billion years old and is located at a distance of about 33,900 light-years from Earth. It is also 31,600 light years above the Galactic plane and roughly 39000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way. (Wiki)

Also visible is NGC5263 a type Sc spiral galaxy about 200 million light years away and many more distant galaxies some visible through the clusters halo.

Esprit150/SX46 2hours per channel RGB. Processed in APP Pixinsight and Photoshop.

Thanks for looking

Dave

[Craig a]

Great image, nice stars to the core 

[stevewanstall]

Can you imagine what the sky would be like in the centre of the core (assuming it was possible to survive the radiation that is !)

[stevewanstall]

And amazing image , BTW, forgot that ! lol

[Xiga]

Great image Dave. So many stars, tack sharp, but not over-done. Very nice indeed!

One small point, it's very subtle, but do i see a hint of some faint horizontal banding running throughout the background? 

[tooth_dr]

Wow that’s incredible. 

[Laurin Dave]

7 hours ago, Xiga said:

Great image Dave. So many stars, tack sharp, but not over-done. Very nice indeed!

One small point, it's very subtle, but do i see a hint of some faint horizontal banding running throughout the background? 

Thanks ..  the background is a bit lumpy 

[alan potts]

Lovely image Dave, I don't believe I have seen it done better, really great work.

Alan