Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

The image below is of the Hercules globular cluster known as M13 (Messier object 13). M13 is around ~22,000 light years away and composed of several hundred thousand stars. To the left of the cluster is a dim galaxy know as IC 4617 (index Catalog 4617). This galaxy is moving away from us at 10740 km/sec giving it a redshift of .036490. This means that today we are seeing it as it was ~1/2 billion years ago (just after time of Cambrian explosion on earth). The Cambrian explosion refers to the high rate of evolution that occurred as multicellular life filled in all the major animal phyla.
The second image is an annotated version labeling IC 4617 and the other red circles mark the location of more distance galaxies I found in the image (I'm sure I missed a lot of them). The yellow circles are groups of 2 or more galaxies I spotted. This image was taken at a ~4000mm focal length at F10 and has much higher resolution than my previous attempt using a 1000mm focal length and a DSLR. The older photo had a wider field of view and was able to include the bright galaxy call NGC 6207 but not a hint of IC 4617)(see https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-604855-1.html). Note this new image is ~180 flipped relative to the older image.


For those interested this image was made by stacking multiple images taken with a 60 mega pixel mono camera using luminance, red, green and blue filters and then combining each separate stacked filter set to create a full color image.

The luminance images where made with a stack of 20 1 minute exposures.
The red, green and blue were made with a stacks of 20 2 minutes exposures each.


All questions, comments and suggestions are welcome.

M13 globular cluster

(Download)

Red circles mark galaxies, Yellow circles mark multiple galaxies. (only IC 46127 was in my charts).

(Download)

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Missed your images when they were first put out. Really good shooting love the image's detail. I am wait for one more part for my system so I can start to learn how to try for something similar (hopefully).

nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah

WOW!! Just WOW!!

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi wdross
Thanks for checking out the image of M13 and for the comment. It is a fun hobby.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi nervous2
Thanks for viewing the image of M13 and for the comment. I'm slowly getting better at taking these type of images.

angler Loc: StHelens England

Excellent shots.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi angler
Thanks for viewing the image of M13 and IC4617 and for the comment.

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Outstanding images

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

One of the best M13 images I've seen. You really got the star colors just right. Nothing like 4000mm and 16" of aperture to bring in all those faint fuzzies.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi J-SPEIGHT
Thanks for viewing the photo of M13 and IC 4617 and for the comment.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi alberio
Thanks for viewing the image of M13 and IC 4617. Yep the 16" really helps in bringing out the faint fuzzies and some detail. I had just added some Bob's knobs to the telescope and wanted to test it out on a easier subject and it worked well.

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Nice shot! Seems the “emptiness of space” is a non sequitur . . .

Stan

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi raymondh
Thanks for viewing M13 and for the Thumbs up.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi Stan
Thanks for viewing M13 and for the comment. Indeed everywhere you look there are galaxies, almost every deep sky image I take there are distant faint fuzzies in the background. This is particularly true when looking through the top and bottom of our galaxy and not towards the edge or center where dust and local stars tend to obscure the far off galaxies.