M11; The Wild Duck cluster and others.

[cotterless45]

Lean times with darkness in Middle England , at 1 am the sky was still not dark .It's been poor seeing the last couple of days. I gave the sky to the South a look.Although up against a poor background I was pleased to see;

Scutum.

M11; I thought that I was looking at two globulars here.There's a wide field pf stars at x60.It is a very beautiful diverse cluster, worth seeking out. M26 was nearby, but appeared as a few bright stars.

Ophiochus.

IC 4665 ; a beautiful arc of stars,worth finding.Then onto the highest of a group of globular clusters. M10, with it's core and a halo of stars.M12 which looked more compact.M14 which was just a small glow and M107 a bit fainter.There are a mass of globular clusters in this area,but lower.

I'll be noting this area for the next dark site visit.It's worth a look,if you can get low Southern views.The most beautiful group was the Wild Duck cluster,M11.There seems to be a lot of bonfires lit at night and this hasn't helped.

Nick.

[JamesF]

I was very impressed with the Wild Duck cluster the first time I saw it. I think there are some stunning DSOs on the southern summer horizon that would probably rival the likes of M13 if they were seen from further south.

I've spent the last few days viewing Messier objects in the same general area. Scutum is a bit tricky at the moment as it's over towards the light dome of Taunton which, though not particularly bad at the moment, is enough to wash out the fainter objects low down. I've done quite well across Ophiucus, Scorpius, Hydra and Corvus, but spent a fair while last night staring vainly at the spot where M83 ought to be, unable to pick out anything I could definitely confirm as a galaxy.

James

[cotterless45]

M83 is going to be very low in the South. When it's higher , at x60 it's bright,you can see spiral arm details.These low constellations are well overlooked,but the challenges are there.

Nick.

[JamesF]

I was trying to work out earlier how the height of objects in the sky changes as the year progresses.

If I've got this right, at the summer solstice the celestial equator is 23-ish degrees above the plane of the ecliptic as we look south at night, whereas at the winter solstice it's 23 degrees below. That means that objects appear lowest in the southern sky around the summer solstice.

So, the trick with the likes of M68 and M83 would be to find them as early in the year when they achieve enough altitude in the morning to get out of the low-level haze on the horizon, or as late in the year before they disappear into the murk in the evening.

Does that sound right?

James

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have mistaken M11 for a globular in the past (with me old 15x70 bins), it is such a dense open cluster. Lovely object