M13 = NGC6205 ( 16h 41.7m +36°28´, 5.9 mag.)


Great Hercules Cluster was discovered by Halley in 1714 and Messier observed it on June 1, 1764. Approx. 23,400 ly distant and 160 ly in diameter, it contains more than 1 million stars. Viewed in a telescope, M13 displays "tentacles" formed by streams of bright giants - two prominent bands of those lay almost parallel to each other across the face of the cluster. M13 is the most spectacular globular cluster for northern observers - only w Centauri and 47 Tucanae in southern skies outshine it. It is noticable with an unaided eye about 2°30' S of h Herculi (see finder chart below).

The above image was taken on July 3, 2002 from Harrowsmith, Ontario. Cookbook 245 LDC CCD camera was used on Ultima 8 f6.3 telescope. Twenty five white exposures (30 sec. each) were combined with cyan, magenta and yellow-filtered integrations (7 x 30 sec. each) using AIP4WIN and resulting color image was adjusted in Lab color space using Corel PhotoPaint 8.

North is to the right. Follow this link for a wide-field view of M13's neighbourhood.


Map created in Guide 7.0 - 7°45' x 7°45'. North is up.


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© Jan Wisniewski