The Challenge of Taking a Photo of the Stars at 2,000mm

Astrophotography is certainly a challenging genre that requires a good bit of effort, but capturing images of ultra-distant and beautiful objects can be an amazing experience. This awesome video follows the process of using a 2,000mm telescope to image an object 22,000 light-years away.

Coming to you from Astro Backyard, this neat video follows the process of imaging the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13). The Great Globular Cluster is about 22,000 light-years away from Earth (about 129 quadrillion miles for those keeping score at home). M13 was first discovered Edmond Halley in 1714 and is about 145 light-years across and consists of several hundred thousand stars and is known for being the target of the 1974 Arecibo message. If you think of astrophotography, you probably think of using wide angle, wide-aperture lenses, and while this certainly can give great results, if you want to take shots of specific objects, you need to use longer focal lengths, with the tradeoff being narrower apertures and more difficulty keeping the target in frame. Nonetheless, seeing an image of something 22,000 light-years away pop up on the screen sure makes all the effort worth it and underscores the vastness of the universe. Check out the video above to see the process.