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Do you have a telescope? Would you like to see some of the same night sky objects from the ground that Hubble has seen from space? We invite you to commemorate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 35th anniversary by accepting our yearlong stargazing challenge! New challenge objects will be featured weekly.

This week’s object is Messier 5 (M5), one of the oldest globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. With a location 25,000 light-years away in the constellation Serpens (The Snake), M5 appears as a patch of light with a pair of binoculars. The most massive stars age quickly, exhausting their fuel supply in less than a million years, and end their lives in spectacular supernova explosions. This process should have left the ancient cluster M5 with only old, low-mass stars, yet astronomers have spotted many young, blue stars amongst the ancient stars in this cluster. Astronomers think that these laggard youngsters, called blue stragglers, formed either by collisions between stars or other stellar interactions.

Hubble's Night Sky Challenge is a year-round observing adventure for amateur astronomers to commemorate 35 years of Hubble science and discoveries. This challenge can also serve as a guide for star parties. 

Helpful Tips

• Some objects may be visible from most locations on Earth, while others are only visible at specific latitudes and may not be accessible for those in other parts of the world. This page has two lists of recommended targets: one for the Northern Hemisphere and another for the Southern Hemisphere. For best results, we recommend using the list that corresponds to the part of the world you live in.
• If the name of the object starts with an "M," it's part of the Messier catalog; names that start with "C" are part of the Caldwell catalog.
• A difficulty scale of 1-3 denotes how easy an object is to find: 1 is the easiest and 3 the hardest. The easiest targets for each hemisphere are listed first, and the most difficult ones are listed last.

Ready to take the challenge? 

Follow the link below to view the challenge website and review the list of recommended objects in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres

Link: Hubble's Challenge For June

Please share your images and stories with the AWB community members by posting a member report. 

What will you be observing this summer? Will you be traveling to a dark sky location over the next few months?