L 6 x 180 sec 1x1 bin, RGB 4ea x 30 sec 2x2 bin - Unguided

The constellation Ophiuchus is a richly adorned portion of the sky and has a number of beautiful globular clusters contained within its boundaries. This globular cluster was discovered by Charles Messier on May 30, 1764, one day after his discovery of neighboring cluster M10. It lies about 16,000 light years from earth, spans about 75 light years in diameter, and has an approach velocity of 16 km/sec towards earth. At magnitude 6.7 it's just too faint for the naked eye but makes an interesting object in a small telescope. A 4-5 inch telescope will begin to resolve some of the brighter stars around the core.

Note the interesting little nebulous "blob" at about a 5 o'clock position away from the core. Is this associated with the cluster itself or a foreground/ background line-of-sight object? Check out the high resolution image to better see this feature.