It’s time to grab your binoculars or telescope and take a look at M13, the “Great Cluster.” M13 is one of the most impressive star clusters in the night sky and is now shining high above the eastern horizon in the keystone-shaped asterism of Hercules.
To locate Hercules, look high overhead at about 10:30 p.m. and you will see Arcturus, the brightest star in the kite-shaped Bootes. Hercules is about 35 degrees to the lower left of Arcturus. Its faint keystone shape of stars is not easy to find. They consist of 3rd- and 4th-magnitude stars, so you will need to observe from a dark location to find its familiar shape.
On a moonless night this week, you will see a “fuzzy star” in Hercules. Through a telescope or binoculars, this remote-looking fuzzy ball of light will reveal itself as thousands of stars that make up the globular cluster M13. Globular clusters are a densely packed collection of older stars that reside in the halo of a galaxy.
First Published: May 23, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
