M13: “The Great Cluster” in Hercules

Tonight Danielle found M13, “The Great Cluster” in Hercules. We observed it from our observation point up Emigration Canyon. The gibbous moon was very bright in the night sky. Using “Turn Left at Orion” as our guide, Danielle began by finding Eta Herculis. She moved the telescope in a stepping fashion moving it to the right and then down until she saw something in the finderscope. She looked into the 25mm eyepiece and was ecstatic to see that she found it. It looked exactly like the picture found in “Turn Left at Orion.” After taking turns observing, we decided to try our 10mm eyepiece. Through this eyepiece it look like an atom with a cloud of electrons. Through this eyepiece, individual stars were observable along the outer edge of the globular cluster. A sense of depth was also observed while using the 10mm eyepiece.