Finding the
Hercules Cluster
Firstly,
find
Arcturus.
The
handle
of
the
Big
Dipper
points
to
it.
Once
Arcturus
has
been
located
you
need
to
find
Vega. This is a
bright
blue
Star
which
is part of the Summer
Triangle.
Now
imagine
a
line
stretching
between
the
two
stars
and
divide
it in to three.
Hercules Cluster
Description: Globular Cluster
Common Name: Hercules Cluster
Messier Catalogue: 13
NGC: 6205
Constellation: Hercules
Size: 20 Arc Minutes
Visual Magnitude: +5.78
Distance: 23 Kilo Light Years
Specification
Date Taken: 18/04/2018
Telescope: Altair StarWave 70ED
Diameter: 70mm
Focal Length: 420mm
Mount: SkyWatcher Star Adventurer
Guiding?: No
Camera: Canon EOS 1000D
ISO: 400
Exposure
Light Frames: 3 x 20 seconds
Dark Frames:
Bias Frames:
Flat Frames:
Stacking program: DeepSkyStacker
Post Processing: Photoshop CS3
April - November
Imaging
In
general
you
can
get
away
with
just
one
sub
of
stars
and
star
clusters
like
this
but
it
is
always
best
to
take
a
few
more
just
in
case
there
is
some
atmospheric
turbulence
also
the
length
of
the
exposure
and
the
ISO
settings
can
be
played
with
over
5
or
6
subs
and
you
can
pick
the
best
one
to
edit
or
stack
them
all
and
see
how
they
come
out
stacked.
The
longer
the
exposure
the
more
stars
you
will
capture
that
are
hiding
within
the
said
cluster.
The
ISO
should
also
be
fairly
high
but
not
too
high
to
introduce
too
much
camera
noise.
These
subs
were
taken
at
ISO
1600
but
as
I
have
mentioned,
play
about
with
the
ISO
settings
and
see
what’s
the
best
setting for your camera and star clusters.
I
only
used
Photoshop
to
add
the
title
and
copyright
notice.
One
third
in
from
Vega
is
a
group
of
4
stars
called
the
Key
Stone.
The
star
on
the
nearest
side
to
Arcturus
is
called
Zeta.
Once
you
have
found
this
star just point your scope north a tad.
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