Messier 13 on a cool evening

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helicon United States of America
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Messier 13 on a cool evening

#1

Post by helicon »


After it cooled down a bit yesterday afternoon from the fog sitting outside of the Golden Gate I decided to haul out the Z10 and set it up on the deck which faces west. I also have a truncated view of the east from that vantage point without any tree obstruction other than some pines on the ridge about 500 feet from the house. Elevation at my house is 1,181 feet whereas the ridge is about 1300 feet. By the time I started observing, around 10:15 PDT I could make out the Keystone in Hercules fairly easily with the naked eye.

The cluster, located one third of the way from Mu to Zeta Herculis glows at magnitude 5.8.

M13 was discovered by the Astronomer Royal, Sir Edmund Halley in 1714. He described it as "a little patch, but shews itself to the naked eye, when the sky is serene and the Moon is absent". Fifty years later, Charles Messier catalogued it on June 1, 1764.

After locating it's area in the Quikfinder I switched to 45x at the eyepiece and beheld a soft ball with some stars resolved at the edges and across its face. While some report seeing "chains of stars" I noticed many sparklers as standing out from the unresolved portions. Ramping up to 180x increased the number of resolved stars visible so that the view was truly spectacular.

One thing I observed was that the seeing was variable due to the cooler air moving towards inland, so I had moments where the image seemed to snap to focus and then others where fewer stars were resolved. I then spent the rest of the evening observing globulars including M92, NGC 6229 in Hercules, NGC 5466 in Bootes, M53, and M3. Of those I have mentioned, M3 was the closest to M13 in appearance.

Right before I turned in for the evening I spent a few minutes probing the Coma/Canes area and witnessed about 15 galaxies, which I greatly enjoyed. The one that really stood out was NGC 4565 the Needle galaxy. Well, that's all for now folks!!! 🖖🖖🖖🖖
-Michael
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
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Makuser United States of America
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Re: Messier 13 on a cool evening

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Post by Makuser »


Hi Michael. I am glad that you had a great time with the Z10 scope. And, even with the variable seeing, you still pulled out some great DSOs in your session. Thanks for your report Michael, and the best of wishes for another great repeat observing session again soon.
Marshall
Sky-Watcher 90mm f/13.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain on motorized Multimount
Orion Astroview 120ST f/5 Refractor on EQ3 mount
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Celestron Omni XLT150R f/5 Refractor on CG4 mount with dual axis drives.
Orion 180mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain on CG5-GT Goto mount.
Orion XT12i 12" f/4.9 Dobsonian Intelliscope.
Kamakura 7x35 Binoculars and Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars. ZWO ASI 120MC camera.
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helicon United States of America
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Re: Messier 13 on a cool evening

#3

Post by helicon »


Makuser wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 3:38 pm Hi Michael. I am glad that you had a great time with the Z10 scope. And, even with the variable seeing, you still pulled out some great DSOs in your session. Thanks for your report Michael, and the best of wishes for another great repeat observing session again soon.
Thanks Marshall. Sessions have been pretty rare lately. I have been experimenting with moon photos using the AR152, but haven't used the Dob in awhile.
-Michael
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
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John Baars Netherlands
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Re: Messier 13 on a cool evening

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Post by John Baars »


Nice observations!
Your choice of targets would have been mine too in that area.
Nice to read and I loved the historical component in it!!
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX.
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
Amateur astronomer since 1970.
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Robko Netherlands
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Re: Messier 13 on a cool evening

#5

Post by Robko »


The Needle is always a stunner! Amazes me every time how big this thing is, especialy from a darker location. Nice report!
scopes: Obsession 18" classic / Tak. Epsilon 160 / Tak. FS60c / Vixen FL55ss
mount; Gemini G41 field
camera: Nikon D810A
eyepieces: Nagler 5, 7, 13mm Vixen LVW 22
All stored in a small obervatory located 2 meters below (current) sea level
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kt4hx United States of America
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Re: Messier 13 on a cool evening

#6

Post by kt4hx »


Excellent report Michael and very happy to see you getting out for some DSO activity. Globulars and galaxies are a very fine dynamic duo for sure! And I remember that you are particularly enamored with NGC 4565 and it is indeed a beautiful treasure of the deep sky. I hope you will have time to check out this month's DSO challenge as well.

Regarding the discovery of M13 by Halley in 1714, he wrote that "This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked eye, when the sky is serene and the Moon absent." While Messier independently discovered the object in 1764 and noted that "I have discovered a nebula in the girdle of Hercules, of which I am sure it doesn't contain any star; having examined it with a Newtonian telescope of four feet and a half [focal length], which magnified 60 times, it is round, beautiful & brilliant, the center brighter than the borders.."

I find it quite interesting, with our knowledge of what we are looking at, to read the words of those pioneers who were trying to determine the nature of the object and adequately describe what they were seeing.
Alan

Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
ES AR127 f/6.5 || ES ED80 f/6 || Apertura 6" f/5 Newtonian
Mounts: ES Twilight-II and Twilight-I
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Filters (2 inch): DGM NPB || Orion Ultra Block, O-III and Sky Glow || Baader HaB
Primary Field Atlases: Uranometria All-Sky Edition and Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas
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"Astronomers, we look into the past to see our future." (me)
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"What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean." (Sir Isaac Newton)
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OzEclipse Australia
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Re: Messier 13 on a cool evening

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Post by OzEclipse »


Great report Michael and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks it is very worthy of a VROD. I know you probably don't want to award yourself a VROD but there should be some mechanism by which the group can award it by popular acclaim.

Joe
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Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site : http://joe-cali.com/
Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80.
Mounts: Takahashi EM-200, iOptron iEQ45, Push dobsonian with Nexus DSC, three homemade EQ's.
Eyepieces: TV Naglers 31, 17, 12, 7; Denkmeier D21 & D14; Pentax XW10, XW5, Unitron 40mm Kellner, Meade Or 25,12
Cameras : Pentax K1, K5, K01, K10D / VIDEO CAMS : TacosBD, Lihmsec.
Cam/guider/controllers: Lacerta MGEN 3, SW Synguider, Simulation Curriculum SkyFi 3+Sky safari
Memberships Astronomical Association of Queensland; RASNZ Occultations Section; Single Exposure Milky Way Facebook Group (Moderator) (12k members)
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