M2

A fine object located in the direction of Aquarius, it is at the limit of naked eye visibility from very dark skies. Despite its considerable distance of 55,000 ly, it is impressive even in small telescopes as it is one of the largest globular clusters known, at approximately 175 ly in diameter. Containing around 150,000 stars and having a mass of about 1.04x10⁵ solar masses, it is one of the oldest known globular clusters associated with the Milky Way - 12.5 billion years old. Classified, II (dense central concentrations), on the Shapley-Sawyer globular cluster concentration scale (1927).