M13 Great Hercules Cluster

[Mac]

The Moon was blazing but the skies were forecasted to be clear so I setup a job in Ekos to run at 3am in hopes the forecast would be right. It was cloudy when I went to sleep but the skies did clear. The L-pro suffers from gradients during a full Moon or light pollution but M13 was high in the sky out of the LP hence the darker background to hide it.

120x120 sec. ASI1600MM Optolong L-Pro filter
ED102 scope 98% Evil Orb

I need some LRGB filters !!!

[Juno16]

Beautiful stars Steve!

Did you switch the EAF and guider back over to the ED102? Or, have you acquired another setup for the Raptor?

I’m looking forward to giving this one a shot with the ED102/ASI 533. Doesn’t matter about the moon right now though. Nothing but clouds and rain in the forecast.

Keep up the fine work!

[helicon]

Looks great Steve. Looks like you picked up the galaxy IC 4617 which is twice as close to M13 as NGC 6207

[messier 111]

wow superb shot , very sharp one , thx .

[Mac]

Beautiful stars Steve!

Did you switch the EAF and guider back over to the ED102? Or, have you acquired another setup for the Raptor?

I’m looking forward to giving this one a shot with the ED102/ASI 533. Doesn’t matter about the moon right now though. Nothing but clouds and rain in the forecast.

Keep up the fine work!

Thanks Jim… I put the Raptor on top of the ED102. This setup is working really well, it is guiding great at 22lbs total. I had .5 RMS most all night Switching the camera over is easy. I am going to mount the 533 on the back of the Raptor with the 5pos EFW and add the 7 pos to the ED102. This will add another 3lbs but I think the AVX will handle it OK. I want to try the Raptor as a guide scope too.

Guiding is the Red line, a few clouds at the start but you can see it is well under 1.0 RMS most of the time. I suspect part of the good guiding was the location of M13 in the sky.

[Mac]

Looks great Steve. Looks like you picked up the galaxy IC 4617 which is twice as close to M13 as NGC 6207

Thanks Michael... I was lucky to get some excellent seeing conditions !!

I did an annotated version before fixing the background which you can see here.

[KathyNS]

Great image! You have got individual stars visible from the outer fringes to the core. It will be nice with some colour. Well done!

[Mac]

Great image! You have got individual stars visible from the outer fringes to the core. It will be nice with some colour. Well done!

Thank you Kathy... my finger is on the add to cart button for the LRGB filters. I can't get the detail with the OSC that the monochrome camera gives me and the lack of color in the stars is a drawback.

[AstroBee]

That is an awesome image Steve. Amazing amount of detail even in NGC6207. And you managed to grab that tiny IC in between too! Congrats.

[SkyHiker]

Great image! You have got individual stars visible from the outer fringes to the core. It will be nice with some colour. Well done!

Thank you Kathy... my finger is on the add to cart button for the LRGB filters. I can't get the detail with the OSC that the monochrome camera gives me and the lack of color in the stars is a drawback.

If you're thinking about upgrading to the 2600MM you need 36 mm filters, FYI since you mentioned the 2600 elsewhere, I don't know what you use for your 1600.

[Mac]

If you're thinking about upgrading to the 2600MM you need 36 mm filters, FYI since you mentioned the 2600 elsewhere, I don't know what you use for your 1600.

I am using 2" filters.

[Thefatkitty]

That's so well done Steve; love the sharpness of all the stars!

After pulling off an image like that, you deserve those filters!

All the best,

[Mac]

That's so well done Steve; love the sharpness of all the stars!

After pulling off an image like that, you deserve those filters!

All the best,

Thanks Mark

I am just undecided which ones to buy and how well they will work in my bortle 6 skies

[MariusD69]

Wonderful! Well done, Steve!

[BABOafrica]

Excellent detail. Definitely the right choice for this time of the month.

BABO

[jthommes]

Very sharp Steve. Stars are well resolved to the core.