First take at globular cluster Messier 3

[Aetherum]

Hi there, fellow light-gatherers!

It has been a while since I posted here and I'd like to present you my first take at the Messier 3 globular cluster, or M3 for short, which was the very first object discovered by Charles Messier himself dating all the way back to the 18th century, 1764. Interestingly enough, Messier was convinced that M3 was a nebula at first until the equally famous and fellow contemporary astronomer William Herschel found that the object could be resolved into individual stars 20 years later, by which it was then declared as a globular cluster in 1784. M3 contains more than 274 variable stars, which is the highest number found among all globular clusters known to date. Globular clusters play an important part in the field of physical cosmology as they can be used to study stellar evolution in the early universe, as well as estimating its age.

I used my 102mm achromatic refractor on a motorised Alt-Az mount with two-star calibrated tracking. I took consecutive 30-second shots amounting to only 180-seconds, or 3-minutes of total exposure time, shot in my garden right in the city center of Ghent.

I know it is only 3 minutes, which isn't considered much in DSO imaging, but does it really make that much a difference apart from having a slightly brighter image due to less noise?

I kindly invite you to follow me on Instagram so I can see your work as well: https://www.instagram.com/eoasphotography/

#nightphotography #astrophotography #nightsky #stars #globularcluster #messier3 #messier #m3 #ghent