Messier 13 - the Great Hercules Cluster - is one of the finest examples of a Globular Cluster that can be found in our skies. It consists of a giant ball of 100,000-500,00 stars packed into an area 145 light-years across. M13 can be found between 22,000 and 25,000 light-years away in the constellation of Hercules.

This is a 5.6 8.5 hour integration in LRGB using my Astro-Physics 130mm scope the ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera. This is the fourth time I have shot this target and this one is clearly my best - displaying a remarkable sharpness in detail.

Messier 13: The Great Globular Cluster in LRGB - First light on my new portable rig.

I have recently shared my efforts to pull together a new lightweight portable rig - but at that time I had NOT yet tested it and confirmed that it would perform to my satisfaction. This test confirmed the viability of the platform.

Messier 13 - The Great Hercules Cluster is about 22-25 thousand light-years away and is about 145 light-years in diameter. This consists of a ball of several hundred stars packed together. This and other globular clusters are distributed around the outer plane of the galaxy and seem to be made of ancient stars.

This is the second time I shot this target with the WO132mm Platform. The first was in 2019.