On May 23, 2020 I had the opportunity to aim the 8" SCT at the great globular cluster in Hercules, M13. As the name says, this globular cluster can be found in the constellation Hercules, in the keystone asterism. This globular cluster can be found between the stars Eta Herculis and Zeta Herculis, and is a bit closter to Eta Herculis. M13 is the largest globular cluster in the nothern hemisphere's night sky. Made up of old stars formed into a dense ball, this cluster is around 12 to 13 billion years old. You don't need a large power telescope to spot this cluster, and you can even spot it faintly in a pair of binoculars. Larger power telescopes will help resolve more and more stars within this dense ball. M13 is approximately 25,000 light years away and orbits our milky way galaxy like all the other globular clusters we see in our night sky.
 |
| M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules |
For this sketch I used white printer paper, an HB pencil for the stars, and a 2B pencil for the hazy almost nebula like light in the core and surrounding the globular cluster. Also for the stars in the cluster itself using the stippling technique I used a variety of pencil hardnesses to give the cluster a bit more depth, so I used HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B for the stars within the cluster.
I will definitely be revisiting this cluster in the future, as I'm not extremely happy with the final results of this sketch. I've had a bit more practice with globular clusters so I think I could do this a bit better on my next visit to this great globular cluster.
If you would like to see where this is located in the sky, and view the time lapse of me sketching this object at the eyepiece be sure to check out the video below:
Comments