Canon 30D Unmodified 13x180sec at iso 1600 30 Darks/Flats/Bias Orion ED80 with WO 0.8 reducer/flattener
M12 is nearly a twin of its apparent neighbor, M10, and is only slightly larger and an idea fainter. Nevertheless, it was once believed to be an intermediate type between globular and dense open clusters (like M11), as it is not very concentrated - notably much less concentrated toward the center than M10. At its distance of about 16,000 light years, the apparent diameter of M12 of 16.0 arc minutes corresponds to about 75 light years. This stellar swarm is approaching us at 16 km/sec.
