Photo of the Week for June 6, 2014

Globular cluster M13, in the constellation Hercules, is one of the season’s finest deep-sky sights. Home to half million stars, M13 is regarded by many as the best object of its kind for northern-hemisphere observers. This tight ball of suns is faintly visible to the unaided eye under dark skies, and in binoculars it looks like a fuzzy “star.” But M13 really comes into its own in a telescope — the bigger the better.

This magnificent photo of the cluster was captured by Serge Théberge from his observatory, located near Orangeville, Ontario. He used a Takahashi FS-152 f/8 refractor telescope and a SBIG ST-10XME camera to acquire the 11.5 hours of data used in this image.

To see more of Serge’s amazing images, visit his web site.