IC 4665, the Summer Beehive.

IC 4665 is a large sparse open cluster at about 1 ½° northeast of the bright star Beta Ophiuchi. The cluster is so large that neither Charles Messier nor William Herschel recognized it as a deep sky object. The cluster never gained much fame at all. As a result, few observers pay attention to IC 4665. With a diameter of 70’, it is definitely a nice binocular target. IC 4665 is an easy to find object as well : just point your binoculars to Beta Ophiuchi and look to the northeast. With the 8x56 I could count 15 stars of 7th magnitude and fainter. Some observers even reported that the Summer Beehive can be seen with the naked eye under very dark skies!

Site : Butgenbach, Belgium
Date : May 6, 2008
Time : around 00,30UT
Binoculars : Bresser 8x56
FOV: 5.9°
Filter : none
Mount : Trico Machine Sky Window
Seeing : 2,5/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : 6.0
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with Photo Paint, based on a raw pencil sketch.

(Note: if the sketch does look too dark on your monitor, try to darken the room.)