The Great Globular Cluster is considered the most beautiful globular in the northern hemisphere and one of the most amazing objects in the entire night sky. Although this stellar assembly has fewer stars than Messier 3, its 145-light-year diameter is still highly visible through an eyepiece or with a camera. The two bright stars around the Great Cluster are Eta and Zeta Herculis, and in the top-right corner of the image is NGC 6207, a distant spiral galaxy 30 million light years away. Due to the cluster’s immense age (over 11 billion years old), its stars only contain 5% of the iron our own Sun contains because they formed before metals existed in our galaxy!
Acquisition Date: June 22, 2020
Acquisition Site: Backyard
Image Details: 60 x 50s (50m)
Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro, Takahashi TOA-130NFB, AP1200GTO, Orion SkyGlow Filter 2″