The Twilight of Hercules

My new work called “The Twilight of Hercules” shows the view from the surface of a moon in orbit around a gas giant which lies in close proximity to the great globular cluster M13 in the constellation of Hercules.  M13 lies about 25,000 light years from Earth and contains several hundred thousand stars in a tightly bound spherical cluster 145 light years in diameter.  In this scene, I’m imagining the view from a frigid moon whose surface holds large lakes of liquid nitrogen chilled to -321 F (77 degrees above absolute zero).  The several hundred thousand stars that make up M13 are cold comfort to these worlds which are kept in a perpetual deep freeze due to the distance from their parent star.  The crystal clear skies of this moon offer spectacular views of the nearby globular cluster which we on Earth can barely make out with the unaided eye!  To really appreciate all the details in this image, please download the full version and view in a dark room.

I used Vue 11 to generate the landscape in this image and Photoshop for everything else.  Custom-made PS star brushes were used to generate the globular cluster while my set of cloud brushes was used to paint the details seen on the gas giant.  The final image was assembled and polished in Photoshop.  I am offering the globular cluster used in this piece as a stock image for general use, see fav.me/d7i8xj0