The globular cluster M5 (NGC 5904; mag 5.7) in Serpens will be well placed in the evening sky in coming weeks. On 12 May it will reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time, and on subsequent evenings it will culminate four minutes earlier each day.
From Columbus , it is visible all night. It will become visible at around 21:52 (EST), 29° above your south-eastern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 01:26, 52° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight at around 05:01, 28° above your south-western horizon.
At a declination of 2°04'N, it is visible across much of the world; it can be seen at latitudes between 72°N and 67°S.
At magnitude 5.7, M5 is too faint to be seen with the naked eye from any but the very darkest sites, but is visible through a pair of binoculars or small telescope.
The position of M5 is as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| M5 | 15h18m30s | 2°04'N | Serpens Caput | 5.7 | 15'00" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 13 May 2026
| The sky on 13 May 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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13% 26 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Image credit
© Digitised Sky Survey (DSS); Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II)