At about 24,000 light years away M5 is a relatively distant globular cluster. However at 165 light years across it's one of the larger ones. It can be spotted fairly easily with binoculars as a fuzzy star. In an 8" or larger telescope it is a nice bright object and you can pick out many individual stars. There are over one hundred variable stars in M5, of which over 80 are short period ones, so an image of this cluster taken next month or next year will have a number of stars that will have a different brightness.  It is among the oldest of the globular clusters, with the majority of it's stars around 13 billion years old. Some suspect it didn't form in our early Milky Way but may be a remnant of a dwarf galaxy which was absorbed long ago into our young and growing galaxy.

It is at it's highest around midnight in May, just a few degrees above the celestial equator. It is in the eastern part of the no mans land between the galaxies trailing Leo and the summer time Milky way. It forms a triangle with Spica and Arcturus, with M5 being in the middle two hours toward the East.

10" F6.3 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope, (1600mm F.L.) Modified Canon 40D camera at prime focus
12 Images, at 1600 ISO, 100 sec, stacked and averaged together, Then processed to bring out detail