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Object Type: Globular Cluster (Class V)
Constellation: Hercules
Magnitude: 5.8
Size: 20'

The brightest globular cluster in the northern sky, M13 is surpassed only by Omega Centarui, 47 Tucanae, and M22, which are in the southern sky. It is visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch in the western side of the "keystone" of Hercules. It is located at a distance of 25,100 light-years and contains hundreds of thousands of stars.

Equipment: Meade 14" LX200R/STL-11000M/Astrodon LRGB filters/Paramount ME
F-ratio: f/9.5
Exposures: LRGB: L 8 x 5 minutes, binned 2x2: R 8 x 5 minutes: G 8 x 5 minutes: B 8 x 5 minutes: RGB binned 3x3
Date: June 7 and June 8, 2007
Location: Landers, California, USA
Technical Notes: Individual exposures were obtained using CCDAutoPilot2 and then sigma combined. The RGB image was created in Registar 1.0. Unsharp Mask of 1 pixel with a threshold of 0 was applied to the bright portions of the luminance image at 50%. Gaussian Blur was applied to the dim portions of the RGB image. A duplicate of the RGB image was combined using Soft Light to increase color saturation.