Telescope Reviews: August Binocular Universe: Observations wanted

M11 - M26 - NGC 6712 - NGC 6664 in Scutum

M11 – R Scutii, Stf 2391 and HVI 50
All in one field of view we have a dense open cluster, two double stars and a variable.
M11 looks like a globular. The dense open cluster M11 is right next to a pair of double stars and the variable R Scutum. The data for R Scu is 4.9 to 8.2 / 140 days. Oddly enough, for the many times I’ve observed this area, I’ve only just recently seen R Scu near minimum. There are three nearby stars that, with R Scu, make a slightly misshapen trapezoid. The double stars are Stf 2391 at 6.5-9.8/38" and HVI 50 at 6.1-8.6/114". There is a mag 7.1 single star fainter than both of those doubles. Then there is R Scutum.

Just north of M11 is a broad Dark Nebula. Just west and south of M11 are small dark nebula patches.

In the area 3°-4° south of M11, M26 is seen easy in the 16x70s but 6712 and 6664 are not seen at all. In 20x80s, globular 6712 is seen and in 6664 only 3 or 4 stars can be glimpsed. In both 22x100s and 25x100s 6712 is seen readily and 8-10 stars can be counted directly in 6664.

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From
Loons on the Lake
July 8, 2007

The record of my binocular observing over recent vacation, this report captures both the images and sounds of day and night. Included here are the notes of observations for about 75 celestial objects.
Enjoy. edz

I stepped outside around 10 o’clock and saw, for the most part, clear dark skies. The band of clouds that appeared to be passing didn’t block much from view. I noticed a few things right away that left me struck with an exclamation, Wow, what is that? I was surprised to find out.
For celestial viewing last night I chose the tripod mounted 20x80 Gemini.

Star Clouds and the Teapot
I glanced up from the binoculars to see M24, the Star Cloud, and it was then that I realized, what I thought was a band of clouds passing thru the sky was the intense glow of the Milky Way thru Serpens, Scutum and Sagitarius, a view I’ve seen not many times before, and one of those times on a previous trip to Maine. M24 was so dense with stars it had the appearance of another cluster viewed a bit later, IC4756, only M24 is so large it goes beyond the edges of even the 3+° view of the binoculars.

Loons on the Lake
Throughout the night, I was kept aware of my location at this beautiful lake by the sounds of the loons. The call is a bit eerie, a loud and varied cry, but unmistakable. Although many floated by during the daytime, the cry of the loon was reserved for night and early morning.

Serpens Cauda and South
Either side of the M24 Star Cloud lie open clusters. I viewed both M25 to the east and M23 to the west. Not too different in size, still these are very different clusters. M23 has many more stars but all are fainter and more evenly bright than those in M25. I panned around this entire area for awhile, each little move seemingly landing on another cluster or nebula or dense population of stars. Then I moved up to see the Serpens nebulae.

Embedded in another very dense star cloud-like area are M16, M17 and M18. At the top, M16 usually appears from home only as nebulous on the best of nights. On this occasion it looks like the open cluster sits near the north edge of a large diffuse nebula. M17 was even more impressive. The nebula surrounding M17 was large and very bright. The bright inverted swan was easily visible. Both stood out well in the same field of view. Below them, the open cluster M18 was a compact little spot of stars.

Scutum
Just off the southwesterly most stars of Aquila lies M11. There are so many stars in the sky that I need to orient myself to the major outline of constellations and then find my way from there. Within a minute or so, I was on M11. There was some resolution of stars in M11. Within 1 degree of M11 is a small trapezoidal asterism. I saw both of the double stars in this asterism and took notice that the variable R Scu, as usual, was near maximum and was the brightest star in the group. What I noticed more than ever before was all the nearly pure black dark areas around M11. These dark nebula all have designations, but I just enjoyed the big picture, without names. The dark empty areas lie in stark contrast to the nearby dense star studded fields.

I moved SW from M11 towards Alpha Ser. The whole area got a bit confusing to me since I rarely see it with so many stars visible. Once on alpha Ser, the open cluster ngc6664 was easily visible. This cluster is so faint that views from home, if seen at all, are recorded as just 2 or 3 stars or not much more. This view showed it as an obvious cluster of about 10 stars, larger and more populous than I’ve ever seen it before. The surrounding area is very dense with stars, but o.c. M26 still stood out pretty easily. What did not stand out so easily is the nearby globular ngc6712. I was so confused by the density of stars that my usual method of star hopping from M26 to 6712 was obscured. After a few tries, ngc6712 was found, a small globular glow amongst the dense star fields.

Both M11 and M26 are tiny compact open clusters that could easily be mistaken for a globular cluster when viewed at this low binocular power. Both have stars mostly fainter than mag 11. They made a fine contrast to some of the much larger and brighter open clusters viewed.

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Oberwerk Ultra 15x70 Observing Sessions
side by side on various nights with (among others)
Fujinon 16x70, Garrett Gemini 20x70 and Anttler Sky Sweeper 18.5x80.

Extended Object Views

oc M26 – A very compact open cluster with stars mostly fainter than mag 11, almost has the appearance of a globular cluster. In the GO20x70 I could see 1 or 2 stars resolved with faint fuzzy splotch to the north. Both the F16x70 and U15x70 see one resolved speck and the remaining fuzzy area was barely seen.

oc 6664 - the open cluster ngc6664 was easily visible. This cluster is so faint that, if seen at all, generally I record just 2 or 3 stars or not much more. Both F16x70 and U15x70 detected some very faint averted specks at the correct location. The GO20x70 instantly detected 2 or 3 faint specks.

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An August Tour
Aug 11, 2006

It’s only two days after full moon, but it started out tonight with very clear skies early before the moon came up. I set up several binoculars and my Megrez 80 in anticipation of a good night. Until about 11:30, I was not disappointed.

M11 had a few stars resolved in the scope at 57x80. There is the bright pair just SW below the cluster, and the one very bright star on the cluster south end. M11 fans out to the north and I could see maybe 4-5 stars resolved with averted vision, but many unresolved specks of faint background stars.

In the 20x80s, M11 was not resolved at all and it did not have the same irregular shape as in the scope. But in the binoculars, M11 takes on a more diffuse glow, seeming brighter than in the scope.

I spotted the double HVI 50 while looking at M11. Half a degree NW, this is easy at 114”.

Back at M11 again, I followed a string of stars down to Aplha Scu and then over to M26. M26 was pretty faint. Cluster NGC 6664 near alpha Scu was just barely seen as a few faint stars. Globular 6712 was spotted, but it looked like just a ghostly spot, smaller than M26.

Now moving south to the area just above my tree-line, I was using the 20x80s and easily spotted M16, M17 and M18. M24, the Star Cloud, was just skirting the tops of the trees and would present itself several times between openings in the top limbs. I did see M25, but missed M23.

The Star Cloud took on a much more cloud like appearance in 10x60s.

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A Prolific Night of Viewing.
October 30, 2005

Garrett Optical 20x80 Gemini. Oberwerk Mariner 10x60 and William Optics Megrez 80

Last night was one of the busiest observing nights I’ve had in a long time. I recorded several pages of notes and this is some of what I saw.

I started the night on M11, noticing that it would drop behind the trees within a short time. M11 was found easily. It was large and appeared slightly resolved, the resolution seemingly more obvious with averted vision. The nearby trapezoid of stars just to the NW has Struve (Stf) 2391 a 38” double and HVI 50 a 114” double. Also, the variable R Scutum, which appeared fainter than the brightest but brighter than two others. And it was this very first observation that set me to research some recent observation notes, because for me this was a discovery.

Variable Star Observing notes to share:
10-30-05

I observe R Scutum quite often, not because I am a Variable Star Observer by nature, but because it is in close proximity to M11 and 2 double stars. So every time I observe in this area I make a note of it.

I believe the data for R Scu is 4.9 to 8.2 / 140 days. Oddly enough, I never seem to catch this at or even near minimum. There are three nearby stars that, with R Scu, make a slightly misshapen trapezoid. The double stars are Stf 2391 at 6.5-9.8/38" and HVI 50 at 6.1-8.6/114". There is a single star fainter than both of those doubles. Then there is R Scutum.

In my log notes R Scu always seems to be brighter than all the other stars, so it must spend a lot of its time near maximum. But two observations recorded this month show differently.

Aug 23,05 - (recorded while using a 25x100 to view M11) M11 was found instantly. The nearby trapezoid of stars just to the NW has Stf2391 a 38” double and HVI 50 a 114” double. Also the variable R Scutum, which appeared brighter than both mag 6 doubles, putting it nearer it’s maximum of 4.9 than it’s minimum of mag 8.

Oct 17,05 - R Scu is fainter than the other three near M11. This is the first time I've ever seen it as the faintest star of this group.

Oct 30,05 - R Scu is fainter than the NE star of the group (HVI 50, the brightest), but it is brighter than Stf 2391 and the faint star.

These notes indicate R Scu is brighteneing. I may not have caught it at minimum but on Oct 17. it was the faintest I've ever seen it. Given that it was fainter than Struve 2391 (6.5-9.8/38") and the mag 9.8 secondary is not adding hardly anything to the integrated magnitude of the primary, I at least caught it at fainter than mag 6.5. Last night it was brighter than both.

If I hazard a guess, I would say on Oct 17 I saw it about mag 7. Oct. 30 it was between 6.1 and 6.5.

Both October observations recorded with a mounted Garrett Optical 20x80 Gemini binocular.

Scutum was into the treetops now so on with some other targets.

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Viewing with Oberwerk 25x100 15x70 and 10x60.
8-27-05

South of M11, where the star hops take you past M26, there is a very faint cluster NGC 6664 and a difficult small globular cluster NGC 6712. neither could be seen in the 10x60. Both were seen in the larger binoculars, easily in the 25x100.

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A cool August night out with Oberwerk 25x100s.
8-23-04

Temps cool enough for comfort. No bugs. Mounted to a UA Unimount Light with HD binocular bracket on med. surveyor tripod.

Within seconds after walking out from a fully lit kitchen, I could see mag 5.0 star in Del. 30-60 min later I saw mag 5.4 in Del. Later still, I saw both mag 5.4 stars in Del and suspected seeing the mag 5.7 star. I did not see mag 5.6 in Sagitta.

Used SkyAtlas 2000.0 charts for most star hopping. Used Uranometria for some closer detail at some of the more difficult orientations.

M11 was found instantly. It was very large and appeared as a east pointed wedge with one or two bright stars at the east tip of the wedge. There was obvious resolution in the cluster that became even more obvious with averted vision. The nearby trapezoid of stars just to the NW has Struve 2391 a 38” double and HVI50 a 114” double. Also the variable R Scutum, which appeared brighter than both mag 6 doubles, putting it nearer it’s maximum of 4.9 than it’s minimum of mag 8.

Following a string of stars to the SW, gets to a Scu and the very near o.c. NGC 6664. Although very faint, I could count 8-9 stars. West of here I easily found g.c. M26 fairly bright. Following another sting of stars NE from M26 leads to g.c. NGC 6712 which took a few seconds to see. It’s smaller and much fainter than M26.

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Mt. Katahdin Maine trip July 2003
Oberwerk 15x70s
As an indicator of naked eye limiting magnitude, I was able to see the straight line of the stars in Cr399, Brocchi’s cluster, the Coat Hanger. The stars in the line are labeled in the 6.3 to 6.9 mag range except one mag 7.1, which I doubt I saw. I can't be sure of which ones I saw, I didn't count, but I was probably seeing at least to mag 6.7.

With great ease I observed many of my favorite objects. I took only a few copies of charts with me, but did not need them. I was glad to know my way around the sky. Some objects that are difficult at home were readily found and observed.

M11 and the surrounding star cloud was so bright, I noted with the surrounding cloud it looked like a large version of M42.

M16-M17-M18 clusters/nebula were all seen with so much Milky Way starshine that it was difficult to see the nebula apart from the faint star glow.
M24 became a vast area of dense star points.

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