M13 / Globular Cluster in Hercules

[rjbokleman]

Ok. I think I might be getting the hang of this now thanks to the coaching I've received from both Andy, Frank, and Mike! This was shot @ MSSF after nearly two (2) hours of careful setup. Polar scope alignment. AVX mount 2 star calibration plus 4 calibration stars. Used Backyard EOS with my Canon T5i in prime focus for capture, with the Skywatcher 100ED Pro. PHD 2.5 guiding. 26 x 120 second exposures, ISO1600. Processed in Nebulosity 4.0 on OS X. Post processing in Pixelmator on OS X.

It's only in my staging area for now and not final. I want to play around some more with Nebulosity's processing a bit more and take out just a couple of frames that were not quite as focused or as sharp as the others. This is a stack of all 26 taken.



Take the time to read the details behind this shot on Astrobin as it includes all the equipment used and some details of M13 itself and surrounding objects!

[Apollo XX]

Ron, that's a definite WOW! Superb! And nice touch with the diffraction spikes on the bright stars. You're making it look easy.

[rjbokleman]

Thanks Mike! I really love 'clusters' of any type: Open, Globular. Much easier to image and process too than Galaxies are. However, my plan is to retry my M81/M82 shots using the new processing steps I just used on M 13 to see if I get better results.

After reviewing those frames mentioned in my first post, I've decided to go with this as final after all. Removing those 3 frames, didn't make much, if any difference. So this has now been made public on Astrobin.

[Bruce D]

Beautiful Ron, focus and tracking are dead on!

[WCGucfa]

Ron, That is one beautiful shot!!
Congratulations!
It looks 3D to me.

Bill G.

[AndyG]

Wow Ron, fantastic result, congratulations!

[Chuck]

Hi Ron,

My name is Chuck (a new member) and agree with everyone else that WOW, a fantastic and beautiful shot of M13. I also love observing clusters and M13 is the best for us northern observers. At some point in the future, I'd like to do some imaging myself. I just picked up the Celestron Advanced VX mount in March and still learning the ropes as I don't get out much right now. Thanks for sharing.

--- Chuck

[rjbokleman]

Hi Ron,

My name is Chuck (a new member) and agree with everyone else that WOW, a fantastic and beautiful shot of M13. I also love observing clusters and M13 is the best for us northern observers. At some point in the future, I'd like to do some imaging myself. I just picked up the Celestron Advanced VX mount in March and still learning the ropes as I don't get out much right now. Thanks for sharing.

--- Chuck

Welcome aboard Chuck! Clusters are cool. All those stars in one place. Frank and I both have the AVX mounts. Had some learning to do myself as I only acquired it in February of this year. If you have any questions - there are plenty of people to ask and get guidance from in ASSNE.

[Pete]

Ya went and broke the learning curve Ron. Sharp focus, good tracking. Image to be proud of.

Pete

[bluemax]

Looks really good for your first time out at MSSF. My results however were nil as I couldn't get PHD2 to align the mount which was my only real goal that night. Been out of imaging for almost a year and have a lot to re-learn....you are doing great!