M3 is a globular star cluster in constellation of Canes Venatici. It is an impressive one, only a little bit smaller than well known M13 in Hercules. Contains about half of million stars and is located about 34000 light years away. M3 is estimated to be 8 billion years old. Not visible with naked eye, but magnificent target for any instrument – starting from small binoculars till the large dobs.
I pictured it from my backyard under mediocre sky with some high clouds and Moon present. Shot with TS130/910 0.79x refractor, Atik383 camera and Baader LRGB filters. Total exposure time was 160 minutes.
Although both sky conditions and exposure time were moderate, there are whole bunch of distant object recorded. Down till magnitude 19.5 several hundreds of remote galaxies can be spotted.
Clear skies!
