M 5 is one of the finest globular clusters in the northern sky.
It is, under excellent conditions, just visible with the unaided
eye in the constellation Serpens Caput. It contains about 100,000
stars, all bound together by gravity and orbiting around the center
of the cluster. The cluster itself orbits around the center of our
Milky Way galaxy. M 5 is also one of the oldest objects in our galaxy,
at 13 billion years old. It is about 165 light years in diameter, and
24,500 light years from earth.

Image data:
Camera: Canon 350XT (modified)
Exposure: ISO 800, 40 minutes total (1 minute x 40)
Telescope: 10" Schmidt-Newtonian