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The Great Hercules Cluster

Tom Westre

Globular clusters are large collections of hundreds of thousands of stars in a gravitationally bound small area of space. They are one of most spectacular objects to view in binoculars or telescopes. These objects lie well outside in the halo of the Milky Way.

Stars like our Sun inside the Milky Way average four light years apart but stars inside a globular cluster are only a light year apart and even closer in the center of the cluster.

One of the best globular cluster is known as M 13 seen in the evening sky from June to late October. It is located in the constellation Hercules. M13 contains hundreds of thousands of stars 140 light years in diameter and 22,000 light years from earth.

To find Hercules, locate the bright star Vega. Hercules is located just to the west. Look for four stars forming what is known as the keystone of Hercules. With binoculars sweep the area between the two stars on the west to find M 13. It looks like a round hazy glow in binoculars. In a telescope you see individual stars with a bright central core.

Don’t miss this spectacular summer object.