Butterfly cluster

[andrew63]

I had a bit of a binocular tour around the Sagittarius region the first time this year. It's a little hazy/dusty low down tonight, and being lightish nothing really shone out.  The Lagoon area and Star Cloud region were subdued, but caught a glimpse of the Butterfly Cluster M6 which I have not seen for a couple of years - just a haze.  So I looked in the telescope for a better view and 19x the clusters main stars and shape were clear. It was too hazy and a bit obscured to see M7 a few degrees lower down. Under better conditions, this whole region is one of the highlights of summer observing though -  dust sprinkled stars all over the place 

For those with a clear horizon, they both will fit in a binocular field.

Caught a glimpse of the more sparkly M7 tonight - it's on the limit though !

 

 

andrew