Cluster of Lights

(Click on image to enlarge)

"I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is not God"

Abraham Lincoln

The image above is that of M13, “The Great globular cluster in Hercules”. This gravitationally bound cluster lies about 25,000 light-years away from us within the Milky Way Galaxy, and is comprised of several hundred thousand stars. These are older, Population II stars, many of which have left the main sequence and are now red giants. Globular clusters, such as M13 are most common in the Halo of our galaxy that surrounds the core. The varying colors present in this image are reflective of the differing temperatures and sizes of stars comprising the cluster. Another, smaller galaxy, IC 4617, can be seen above and to the right of M13. It is a 16th magnitude galaxy

Image details:
Location: Star Lodge Observatory
Date: May, 2008
Telescope: Planewave CDK 12.5
Camera: SBIG STL 11000
LRGB 35:20:20:20