First up is a famous star cluster, Messier 13 (or M13). This cluster of stars is sometimes called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules or the Hercules Globular Cluster. It contains about 300,000 stars and is estimated to be just under 12 billion years old. It is so dense that near the core there are as many as 100 stars per cubic LY. M13 is about 22,200 LY from earth.
 |
| M13 - May 9, 2023 EdgeHD11/ASI533MC - 77×120″ subs |
Second is another globular cluster, M3. This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is estimated to be 11.4 billion years old. It is centered at 32,600 light-years away from Earth. (Wiki)
 |
| M3 - May 10, 2023 EdgeHD11/ASI533MC - 110×120″ |
I am now planning on a new project which may take a number of weeks to complete. Back in October of 2019 I captured the iconic Bubble Nebula with my GT102 APO refractor and ASI1600mm camera. I was still learning a lot back then (both in capture techniques and processing tools), and although the result was quite good, it lacked the 'wow' factor that I've seen in other images of this deep space object.
With my new equipment (ASI2600mm camera and new Optolong 2" NarrowBand filters) ready I decided to redo the capture of the Bubble Nebula and try to get a better image. This is going to take a bit of effort since I will need about 60 subs (600 sec exposure each) of all three filters. That means I need about 35 hours of capture time (accounting for the exposures and periodic re-focusing time) to get the data I need. I will probably wait to early autumn to take advantage of the clearer skies and the longer periods of darkness. As a test I captured 28 subs (600 sec each) in Ha on July 17 to see how the camera performed. Can't wait to get the whole set of data later this year.
 |
| Test capture of C11 (Bubble Nebula) EdgeHD11/ASI2600mm 28x600sec Ha |
