Low summer clusters with Skymaster 20x80

[Nik271]

Last night was exceptionally transparent and I decided to try to bag  some of the low southern Messiers that have eluded me in the past.

I started at 1am with my Skymaster 20x80 from the bedroom window(!) The extra height helps to see over houses.

So to start off: Antares and M4. This was my best view of M4 ever. Usually there is a low misty murky atmospheric layer hiding it but not this time. The cluster was showing very well as a large gray fuzzy ball. In fact this is by far the largest globular I've seen, I estimate it looked almost as big as the Moon! Very encouraging. I moved up to M80, this was a bit tricky to find at first, halfway between Antares and Beta Scorpii. It looks like a dim fuzzy star in a small group of dim stars.

I panned east from Antares and immediatley hit M19, unmistakably a globular cluster near the pair 31 and 28 Ophiuci. Stellarium told me there should be another globular below it and indeed I spotted another 'fuzzy star' M62 down. Quite pleased with this one as it is very low for me at only 7 degrees elevation.

Contiuning east I visited the Milky Way central delights: Lagoon, Triffid, Swan and Eagle nebulae. The Lagoon in particular was stunning, the nebulosity was obvious and extending quite a bit beyond what I remember. If only M8 was a bit higher for observers in the north it will give M42 a hard time competing for the top spot in the sky! 

Further east  was M22, another great and bright globular that I wish was a bit higher. I was hoping to attempt M6 or even M7 (!) but they were still too low, some low cloud was building up, and it was 2am. Packing up invloved just closing the window and capping the binoculars 🙂

[josefk]

That sounds great, M4 especially. 

[Nik271]

A quick update from the next night: I managed to bag M6 at last! There was a forecast for partially cloudy skies and being an optimist I set my alarm clock for 2:30am.

Amazingly the sky was clear with a very low line of cloud in the south. I decided to give it a try since I could see Delta Sgr (Kaus Media) just above the cloud. Panning west of it past Gamma Sgt I spotted M6 just above the cloud line! It didnt look very special, a lop-sided pentagon of stars. It only gets to 6 degrees above the horizon from here and I don't expect I will ever be impressed by it from the UK. Still I'm very pleased with this, the southmost Messier object I've seen 🙂 Only M69 and M7 are further south - challenges for another time.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Nik271
typos corrected

[SuburbanMak]

Great stuff - I managed to catch M80 last weekend but otherwise summer Messier progress has been slow so far. Good to read of your success and dedication to the cause with odd-hours observing! 

[Paz]

Great report, those dsos always remind me of the summer holidays. I can't do really late nights so have to wait to later in the summer to see things around Scorpius and Saggitarius.

[jjohnson3803]

I'm at 42* N and M4 is difficult for me even with my ST120.  I am in pretty heavy light pollution though (Bortle 7-8).

I've observed to the south (in the winter) through my dining room window, but I'll have to try Sco and Sgr from my upstairs loft window - hopefully I'll get the height advantage you mention.  That would also save me a drive to a club dark site with an unobstructed southern horizon.

Edited June 5, 2022 by jjohnson3803