M14, in the constellation of Ophiuchus, was discovered by Charles Messier on 1 June 1764 who described it as "a round nebula without stars". It was first resolved into stars by William Herschel in 1783. It is about 30,000 light-years away and is about 100 light-years in diameter. It has an integrated magnitude of 7.6 and may be glimpsed in binoculars in a dark sky.
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M14 captured with my LX200 fitted with a 0.33 focal reducer (focal length 800 mm). The diameter of the cluster is about 14 minutes of arc. The brightest stars are about magnitude 14. Where I live (latitude 52° N) there is no true darkness at this time of the year, but M14 is bright enough to show through and I took the pictures soon after midnight. As always I used a CLS filter to remove the worst of the artificial-light pollution. Date and Time: 28th May 2012 00:43 to 00:53 UT Camera: Starlight Xpress MX716 Telescope: LX200 with 0.33 focal reducer and Astronomik CLS filter Capture: star_mx7. 10 frames 60 seconds exposure Processing: star_mx7. Dark frame subtracted, enhanced factor 25, black level. Registax 5. All frames stacked, Gaussian wavelets Scheme 2, gamma 1.3, brightness -4. Focus Magic 3,100. |
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