Messier 5 (M5) (also known as NGC 5904 or the Rose Cluster) is a globular star cluster in the constellation Serpens Caput (the Serpent’s Head) that’s visible from the Northern Hemisphere. It’s one of the largest and oldest globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy, containing over 100,000 stars in a region about 165 light-years in diameter. M5 is located 24,500 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 6.7. It appears as a patch of light with binoculars and is best viewed during July.
M5 is a good target for beginner astro-photographers and is well known among visual astronomers as one of the best clusters to observe in the night sky. A 150–200mm (six- to eight-inch) telescope can provide a memorable view, allowing you to see individual stars across a roughly 10 arcminute-sized sphere and more or less all the way down to M5’s core. M5 makes an epic imaging target, especially for long focal length telescopes. This image was taken with an 8 inch Ritchie-Creighton telescope and a ZWO ASI071MC Pro astrophotography camera. – 61 120″ images combined.
Also in this image is IC 4537, a lenticular galaxy of type S0-a in the Serpens constellation, located 736 million light-years from the solar system. It has a surface brightness of magnitude 23.9, a Right Ascension of (15 hours: 17.5 minutes) and Declination (+0.2 degrees : 02 minutes). IC 4537 is located near the celestial equator and a few miles away from the globular cluster, Messier 5. (Top enter of this image)
