(Possibly) An under-observed open cluster

[Moonshane]

I was scanning around the sky in the general region of Aquila with my big dob and stumbled on a rather nice open cluster with which I was unfamiliar. Unfortunately the clouds rolled in and I could not confirm what it was. The other night I found it again in my small widefield frac and confirmed it as IC466 which is just above Cebalrai (Beta ophiuchi). IC 4665 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A well spaced cluster with stars all of approximately the same sort of magnitude. Very nice with either larger or small aperture and well worth a look.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I spotted this in June, it is very nice even in 15x70s

[mjpfc]

The cluster covers a large-ish area just off the edge of Mellotte 186 so with large scopes you can lose most of it. Binos or a small -med telescope with wide angle are best.

Whilst you are there, moving east above Barnards star and below 71 Ophiuchi ther is a bright little planetary NGC 6572 wich is well worth looking at, and further out Cluster 6633 which is pretty bright.

Cebalrai also has a small Globular 6426 and a Galaxy 6384 close at hand as well as Barnards star itself, so it is an area with a bit of everything.

Clear skies, Mick:hello2: