M3, NGC 5272

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. M3 is a giant globular cluster that consists of several hundred thousand stars. It is slightly larger and more distant than M13. Like in all globular clusters, the stars are all old. Because the core of the cluster is very bright, many short exposures had to be taken so that it would not be over exposed. The image was generated with observations in B (blue), V (green) and I (red) filters. In this image, North is left, East is down.