Globular Cluster M3 in Canes Venaciti

A beautiful and bright globular cluster containing thousands of stars. The distance to M3 is estimated to be about 37,500 light years and its diameter is about 220 light years. This is likely a very old cluster and, in large telescopes, appears to contain about 45,000 stars.

Images taken with TEC-140 Telescope mounted on Losmandy G11 mount. Camera used was a Canon EOS20D used at prime focus.

Ten 1 minute exposures dark compensated, aligned and stacked, background removed and digitally developed with ImagesPlus 2.5 Beta 6.