The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules and Vega

No, thats NOT a medical condition!

Messier 13 - the big cluster of stars in the top section of the image is known as the Great Globular Cluster. It sits in the constellation of Hercules. Through my telescope, which I now know is classed as small, from the commentary on Sky at Night, it only looked like a fuzzy smudge through the eyepiece. Even with a barlow lens which magnifies, still not much to see. However, the camera did a grand job of picking up the detail.

It is thought that there are about 250,000 stars in this cluster and it is around 12 million years old. It sits 25,000 light years away from Earth.

Vega is the bright star in the bottom half of the image. It is a bright star that sits in the constellation Lyra and it was one of my alignment stars this evening. Super bright, sitting in the East, it was one of the first stars to become visible for me tonight. Vega sits right on the edge of the Milky Way and if it wasnt so darn light polluted here, I would use that as my measuring point to sit and ponder the magnificence of this galaxy that we sit in. To put distance into perspective, Vega is only 26 light years away, compared to the 25000 of the globular cluster.

Note - this is two images, effectively the top half is M13, the bottom half is Vega.

Although I slept late, as I decided that it was the only way to ignore the pain, I still managed a productive day working on school related stuff. Corin has been busy in the back garden implementing phase 1 of installing an observatory for me, so that I don't have to spend 40 minutes setting up, and taking down, the telescope each viewing session. My husband is great!

I do need to collimate my telescope I think...more research needed.

That's all. Wine and a bath now, with the prospect of a full day of work tomorrow. Jobs need doing and they need doing now. Just in case!