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M5, the Ancient One (M5, cropped in), Bruce Larsen
M5, the Ancient One (M5, cropped in), Bruce Larsen

M5, the Ancient One (M5, cropped in)

Revision title: M5, widefield view, a city of stars in a stellar countryside

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M5, the Ancient One (M5, cropped in), Bruce Larsen
M5, the Ancient One (M5, cropped in), Bruce Larsen

M5, the Ancient One (M5, cropped in)

Revision title: M5, widefield view, a city of stars in a stellar countryside

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Description

No one gets too excited about globular clusters; a quick search shows that M5 has only been an Astrobin Image of the Day four times, and not since 2015; only seven M5 images have received Astrobin Top Picks, and only seven Top Pick Nominations.   

M5 was a convenient target to fill precious dark sky time while waiting for my primary target to rise.  I would have shot this with my 8" at 1432 or 2032mm, but was already set up with my Esprit 80mm to shoot Rho Ophiuchus at 400mm. 

This "filler shot" came out half decent.  Though globulars are considered boring imaging targets, Dr Richard Pogge's  Astronomy 162 podcast details galactic science in a way that refreshed my love for shooting Milky Way targets this summer.    

M5 is one of the oldest globulars, and like most is largely composed of ancient 12 billion+ year-old stars.  Interestingly, it's also lit by new "blue stragglers"--see the NASA description in the link below.


https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-5

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    M5, the Ancient One (M5, cropped in), Bruce Larsen
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Title: M5, widefield view, a city of stars in a stellar countryside

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M5, the Ancient One (M5, cropped in), Bruce Larsen