Mel111

[neil groves]

Since I have to get up at stupid'o'clock for work, it doesn't give me much time for stargazing during the week but I did manage to get out last night for an hour to view Coma Berenice which I had been reading about during the day and it was a nice clear sky after several nights of a  thin high cloud layer that was giving the stars a somewhat misty muted appearance,  I grabbed two of the lower stars of Leo in the tail and followed a line towards Arctures, coming across Mel 111, it is neither bright nor colourful but a sight to behold in Binoculars absolutely filling the field of view in my 8X40's.

It is ideally placed in the southeast for me right now at 9pm so I have told the wife I need ME time on Saturday night and have some exploring to do

Neil.

[Stu]

It's a nice one, isn't it.

Best view I've had was with the TV76 and 24 Panoptic, 3.4 degree fov down in Gloucester camping a while back, lovely

Stu

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[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice one. The Melotte clusters are not so much hidden as neglected gems. Many of them stare us in the face, and only after many years of stargazing do most of us realise we were looking at an open cluster all along.

[neural]

Since I have to get up at stupid'o'clock for work, it doesn't give me much time for stargazing during the week but I did manage to get out last night for an hour to view Coma Berenice which I had been reading about during the day and it was a nice clear sky after several nights of a  thin high cloud layer that was giving the stars a somewhat misty muted appearance,  I grabbed two of the lower stars of Leo in the tail and followed a line towards Arctures, coming across Mel 111, it is neither bright nor colourful but a sight to behold in Binoculars absolutely filling the field of view in my 8X40's.

It is ideally placed in the southeast for me right now at 9pm so I have told the wife I need ME time on Saturday night and have some exploring to do

Neil.

It's a lovely part of the sky, and perfect for very low power - I'm enjoying it much more in my 7x50s than I used to in 10x50s (the Hyades too). 

Oddly enough I noticed just today, while plotting a double star session in Com, that 12 Com is listed as a 59" double with mag 4.9 and 8.9 components. It should be a nice challenge at 8x if you have a darker sky than I do!