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Just observed M13 for the first time

Tutankhpip

By Tutankhpip
in Observing - Deep Sky

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Tutankhpip

Tutankhpip

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Im absolutely thrilled with this one. Its only my second Messier object so far. The other being M31. I found M13 to be unmissable in the FOV unlike M31. It puzzles me. M31 is mag 3.5 but M13 is only mag 5.9. How come M13 was much brighter in the scope? The seeing conditions on both viewings were identical. Any ideas?

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Aussie Observer

Aussie Observer

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Congrats on the successful Messier hunt, 2 down only 108 to go! As to your question, M13 ( about 25000ly) is a lot closer than M31( about 2 millionly) and the apparent magnitude of M31 is spread over a much larger area so the object is a lot dimmer in the eyepiece. You will find that is the same for all galaxies. A good example of this is M33 which is about the same apparent size as the moon but is very hard to see in a telescope. Hope this answers your question. Clear skies!

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Steve922

Steve922

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Would that be M31 ? :-) I like to introduce it by announcing that absolutely everything they can see with their naked eye is in our own Milky Way galaxy (named so after the famous chocolate bar) except for just ONE thing.

Steve

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Supay

Supay

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Would that be M31 ? :-) I like to introduce it by announcing that absolutely everything they can see with their naked eye is in our own Milky Way galaxy (named so after the famous chocolate bar) except for just ONE thing.

Steve

My friends were more impressed with M13, as they could make out the stars so clearly and see how compact the cluster was. It was a lot easier for them to get their heads around what they were looking at.

M31 was a rather unimpressive fuzzy blob which they didn't think much of, but that likely had more to do with the Moon being so close and nearly full and my lack of experience in using the scope.

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