This is an image of the Globular Cluster M13, taken with my beautiful new (well, new/used) Stellarvue 80/F9 refractor.
It was taken in August 2005. The image represents about 10 frames (out of 20 taken) at 40 seconds, using an ATiK 2HS camera. The scope performed very well, although my old EQ3 mounting would have probably preferred to hold a lighter scope. As usual, the image was taken from my increasingly light polluted backyard in Howell, Michigan.
Globular clusters are formed when a huge cloud of interstellar gas “condenses” to form thousands of separate stars, and the mutual gravitational attraction between the stars (“Gravitational Binding Energy”) is strong enough to keep the stars from wandering apart despite there own “relative motions,” so the stars remain tightly bound together pretty much forever. M13 is probably the brightest such object in the northern sky. It is visible to the naked eye on very clear nights, and covers about the same area of sky as the full moon.
Hope ya all like it.