![M13](http://www.psaltery.org/astrophotos/2015/m13.jpg)

The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13) or the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of about 300,000 stars in the constellation of Hercules. M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and catalogued by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764. 
M13 is about 145 light-years in diameter, and it is composed of several hundred thousand stars, M13 is 25,100 light-years away from Earth.

The Arecibo message of 1974, which contained encoded information about the human race, DNA, atomic numbers, Earth's position and other information, was beamed from the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope towards M13 as an experiment in contacting potential extraterrestrial civilizations in the cluster. While the cluster will move through space during the transit time, the proper motion is small enough that the cluster will only move 24 light years, only a fraction of the diameter of the cluster. Thus, the message will still arrive near the center of the cluster. (dixit [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_13))

![M13](http://www.psaltery.org/astrophotos/2015/m13_A.jpg)

This photo was taken from my garden with a scope (Newtonian 200/1000), my old mount (EQ6) and a CCD camera (Atik One 6.0), in black and white with R,G,B and L filters, for a total of 2 hours exposure in June 2015.

Technical detail of the photo here: http://www.astrobin.com/185391/

If you want more information, ask me in comment !

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