M13 is one of the most prominent and best known globular clusters of the Northern sky. It was discovered in 1714 by the noted English astronomer, Edmond Halley. Located in the Hercules constellation, M13 is visible to the naked eye on clear nights in dark sky locations.

The cluster contains perhaps as many as 500,000 stars, though some estimates push that number even up to a million. M13 is estimated to be about 14 billion years old, which places the date of its origin near to the date of the galaxy's birth.