Messier 13

Messier 13, also known as  the Great Globular Cluster, is located in the constellation Hercules. I’ve wanted to capture this object for some time; however, in the spring of 2021 it turned out to be a wait-and-see effort for when it comes up along with competing against the Texas cloud and rain season. M13 is roughly 145 ly wide and is packed with several thousand stars gravitationally bound together. NASA estimates there to be about 100,000 stars within the cluster and roughly 22,000 ly from our location. 

 

Learn more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_13

With everything integrated across the 4 filters the total integration time is just shy of 17 hrs, for LRGB

Technical

Explore Scientific 127 FCD100 APO telescope

Explore Scientific .7x Focal Reducer/Field Flattener

MoonLite focuser

SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mount

ZWO ASI1600 MM Pro camera

Chroma Red, Green, and Blue filters

Optolong L-pro filter