M3

 First discovered in Dec 1764 by French astronomer Charles Messier, M3 is again a globular cluster with over 500,000 stars and an age of a mind blowing 11.4 Billion years old. Easily visible in binoculars or a telescope.

12 x 2 minute exposures in RGB channels combined in Pixinsight. Core Brightness reduction in Photoshop.

Galactic Globulars M3,M53

I cant believe the good run we have had over the last week five from five here in Sunny Norfolk. I am feeling a bit gutted too as I have missed Breckland Astronomical societies first star party & I have a week of night to do starting tonight so the skies are bound to get even better!!. I shouldn't complain either as I have addeed a handful of Pics to my own messier chart

Having bagged a few galaxies this week I turned my attention to the old and weary (globulars) that is....

M5 & M53 became the clusters of choice.  

                      M5

Astronomers like Messier, Kirch, Koehler & Bode all described their first observations of M5 back in the mid 1700's as a nebula without stars. It wasn't until 1783 when William & Caroline Herschel viewed through their 7  & 20 foots reflector. it was resolved into the myriad of stars we can capture today. Although Caroline still mistook it for a comet.

 M53 & Ngc 5053

M53 and NGC5053 are shown in this field. M53 is the bright globular cluster in the centre; NGC5053 is the dimmer globular cluster in the lower right. ngc5053 is about 53,500 light years distant from Earth which is close to the distance of M53. This puts both globular clusters relatively close to each other in space. I had made a slight miscalculation and thought I could not fit both in the same field of view. I only looked at the framing of M53 in my test image. I will have to have another go sometime framing them both appropriately.

M3

I was not going to give up on the chance of was last imaging run before we move and be without a working observatory over the summer months.

A few outside lights left on by my soon to be ex neighbour caused a few issues so I reduced the ISO to 400 and let off a few 5 minute exposures. This image was a total of 1 hour 20 minutes with a DDP stretch and star spikes. I am quite pleased with result despite the fact it is not the perect focus I have achieved before.