Some of the finest galactic clusters can be found in Vulpecula. The small cluster NGC 6885 is one of them. Our starting point for this journey is Epsilon Cygni. Now go 3° south to 52 Cygni. Another 3° southwest you’ll find the beautiful and large cluster NGC 6940. These four objects form a diamond. Now move the bino’s 4° west to 23 Vul. Then go 1° southwest to 20 Vul. NGC 6885 can be found ‘behind’ 20 Vul. Don’t expect to see a bright object. The cluster might not be visible at first, with 20 Vul shining at mag 5.9. That's why I just scanned over the spot without noticing the cluster at all. Try to use averted vision to see the faint cluster members near 20 Vul. With the 8x56 the cluster seems to be embedded in a faint nebula, produced by the unresolved starglow. The center of the cluster looks rather empty.

Site : Bütgenbach, Belgium
Date : June 28, 2008
Time : around 22.30UT
Binoculars : Bresser 8x56
FOV: 5.9°
Filter : none
Mount : Trico Machine Sky Window
Seeing : 2,5/5
Transp. : 4/5
Nelm : around 5.9
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.)