Messier 13 (M13)

Common Name: Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

Also Known as: NGC 6205, C1639+365

Object Type: Globular Cluster

Constellation: Hercules

Distance from Earth: 22,200 light years

Apparent Magnitude: 5.8

Coordinates: RA 16H 41M 41.24S DEC 36 deg 27 min 35.5 sec

Actual Size: 145 light years in diameter.

Apparent Dimensions: 20 arc minutes.

Discovered by: M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714.
Charles Messier catalogued the object on June 1, 1764.
In 1787 William Herschel resolved the stars in M13.

Description: M13 is one of the brightest and best-known globular clusters in the northern sky. It has an estimated age of 11.65 billion years and contains about 300,000 stars. The Hercules Globular Cluster contains an unusually young, B2-type star, designated Barnard 29.
The star does not really belong to the cluster, but was presumably picked up by M13 on its orbit around the Milky Way.
Other stars in the cluster are very old and only have about 5 percent of the Sun’s iron content as they were formed before the stars in our galaxy created metals.
M13 also contains about 15 blue stragglers, old stars that appear younger and bluer than their neighbors. Messier 13 is a class V globular cluster, one with an intermediate concentration of stars toward the center. It has a densely packed central region, with up to a hundred stars populating a cube only 3 light years on a side.
The Hercules Globular Cluster was the target of the Arecibo message, a message beamed from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 1974, which contained information about the human race, Earth’s location and other data.
The message was sent from a radio telescope in the direction of M13 as a way of potentially contacting extraterrestrial civilizations. However, the message will never reach its target.
It will arrive at the past position of M13 in about 25,000 years, but the cluster will no longer be there at that point.

Click Below Image(s) for Full Size:

The cluster can be seen without binoculars in exceptionally good viewing conditions, with clear skies and no light pollution. M13 can be seen with the naked eye where it appears as a fuzzy ball. Stars are revealed using even a 4 inch scope.

M13 can be best viewed from May-September.

Platesolve

M13 Globular Cluster

Imaging Details
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