M5 · ATR2600C · 2025-04-24

Messier 5 (M5, NGC 5904) is a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens (Serpens Caput), and among the largest and oldest star clusters belonging to the Milky Way. It lies roughly 24,500-25,000 light-years from Earth and spans about 165 light-years in diameter, home to several hundred thousand stars whose ages are estimated at more than 12 billion years, making it one of the oldest known stellar populations in the Galaxy. At magnitude 5.6, M5 is faintly visible to the naked eye under dark skies and resolves in amateur telescopes into a dense, richly textured swarm of stars concentrated toward a bright core. It hosts over 100 known variable stars, mostly RR Lyrae types, adding scientific interest to what is already one of the finest globular clusters visible from northern latitudes.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_5]

Annotated Image

The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.

Sky Location

The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.

Image Details

PixInsight Processing

1. Image Integration (x3)
2. Drizzle Integration
3. Background Neutralization
4. Automatic Background Extraction
5. Dynamic Background Extraction
6. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
7. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution) (x2)
8. Integer Resample
9. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
10. Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (x2)
11. Curves Transformation

Messier 5 (M5, NGC 5904) is a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens (Serpens Caput), and among the largest and oldest star clusters belonging to the Milky Way. It lies roughly 24,500-25,000 light-years from Earth and spans about 165 light-years in diameter, home to several hundred thousand stars whose ages are estimated at more than 12 billion years, making it one of the oldest known stellar populations in the Galaxy. At magnitude 5.6, M5 is faintly visible to the naked eye under dark skies and resolves in amateur telescopes into a dense, richly textured swarm of stars concentrated toward a bright core. It hosts over 100 known variable stars, mostly RR Lyrae types, adding scientific interest to what is already one of the finest globular clusters visible from northern latitudes.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_5]

Annotated Image

The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.

Sky Location

The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.

Image Details

PixInsight Processing

1. Image Integration (x2)
2. Drizzle Integration
3. Background Neutralization
4. Automatic Background Extraction
5. Dynamic Background Extraction
6. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
7. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution) (x2)
8. Integer Resample
9. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
10. Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (x2)
11. HDR Multiscale Transform
12. Curves Transformation (x3)
13. StarXTerminator (star removal)
14. PixelMath (x3)

Messier 5 (M5, NGC 5904) is a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens (Serpens Caput), and among the largest and oldest star clusters belonging to the Milky Way. It lies roughly 24,500-25,000 light-years from Earth and spans about 165 light-years in diameter, home to several hundred thousand stars whose ages are estimated at more than 12 billion years, making it one of the oldest known stellar populations in the Galaxy. At magnitude 5.6, M5 is faintly visible to the naked eye under dark skies and resolves in amateur telescopes into a dense, richly textured swarm of stars concentrated toward a bright core. It hosts over 100 known variable stars, mostly RR Lyrae types, adding scientific interest to what is already one of the finest globular clusters visible from northern latitudes.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_5]

Annotated Image

The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.

Sky Location

The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.

Image Details

PixInsight Processing

1. Background Neutralization (x2)
2. Automatic Background Extraction (x2)
3. Dynamic Background Extraction (x2)
4. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration (x2)
5. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution) (x4)
6. Integer Resample (x2)
7. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise) (x2)
8. Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch (x4)
9. Curves Transformation (x3)
10. Image Integration (x2)
11. Drizzle Integration
12. HDR Multiscale Transform