Been too busy to make an use of our unusually clear nights recently but the forecast is not good for the coming week so I took the opportunity to jump out for a quick shot of M13 late last night.

To be honest I wasn’t expecting much as we have mag 3.5 light pollution here with two nightclubs adjoining my garden. In fact M13 was just a smudge visually. But the Megrez, Sac10 & IDAS combo did me proud even though we I could only get 16 2min exposures before clouds rolled in.

Description:

M13 is by far the best example of a globular cluster in the northern hemisphere. Discovered in 1713 by Edmond Halley it is situated about 25000 light years from Earth in the Hercules constellation and contains around 400,000 tightly packed stars, giving it a snowball look visually.

Here’s the photo,

Larger version here:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/484866359_d76ad2dc67_o.jpg