Target Type R. A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M24 (IC 4715) Open Cluster 18h 18m 48s -18° 33′ 00″ Sagittarius +4.59 90.0 arcmin Overview Other than the Andromeda Galaxy, the Sagittarius star cloud is the largest of all the Messier objects visible in our night sky. At ninety arcminutes wide, it occupies an area of …
Target Type R. A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M21 (NGC 6531) Open Cluster 18h 04m 13s -22° 29′ 00″ Sagittarius +5.90 14.0 arcmin Overview Less than 1° away from the Trifid Nebula, M22, is this compact open cluster. Discovered by Messier in June, 1764, this rich little cluster is 4,200 light-years away from us. The …
Target Type R.A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M18 (NGC 6613) Open Cluster 18h 19m 58s -17° 06′ 00″ Sagittarius 6.90 5.0 arcmin Overview This cluster is sparsely populated with just a few dozen bright stars. It’s a young cluster, aged just 33 million years, and is seventy light-years off the galactic plane, almost 5,000 light-years …
Target Type R. A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M23 (NGC 6494) Open Cluster 17h 57m 04s -18° 59′ 00″ Sagittarius +5.50 29.0 arcmins Overview This open cluster in Sagittarius is the home of 150 or so stars. Discovered by Charles Messier in June 1764, he correctly identified it as a star cluster from first glimpse. …
Target Type R. A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M30(NGC 7099) Globular Cluster 21h 40m 22s -23° 10′ 48″ Capricornus +7.19 12.0 arcmin Overview Charles Messier discovered this cluster in August 1764, believing it to be a round nebula with no stars. Almost twenty years later, in 1783, William Herschel resolved its stars, seeing it as …
Target Type R.A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M74 (NGC 628) Spiral Galaxy 01h 36m 42s +15° 47′ 00″ Pisces 9.03 9.9 x 9.3 arcmin Overview M74 presents the archetypal image of a galaxy. When I conjure a picture of a galaxy in my mind, something very like the face-on image of M74 is what I …
Target Type R. A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M14 (NGC 6402) Globular Cluster 17h 37m 36s -03° 14′ 45″ Ophiuchus 7.59 11.0 arcmins Overview Contrary to what it’s statistics suggest, M14 turns in a pleasing view at the telescope. It is not visible to the naked eye (but is readily found with binoculars), is relatively …
Target Type R. A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M28 (NGC 6626) Globular Cluster 18h 24m 33s -24° 52′ 11″ Sagittarius +6.8 13.8 arcmin Overview M28 is a gem of a cluster that’s easy to overlook in favor of the nearby, larger M22. But it shouldn’t be passed by because it is a treat. Messier discovered …
Target Type R. A. Dec. Constellation Magnitude Size M54 (NGC 6715) Globular Cluster 18h 55m 03s -30° 28′ 48″ Sagittarius +7.6 12.0 arcmin Overview This glorious cluster was discovered by Charles Messier in July 17798 and is the most distant of all his globulars. It also hold the distinction of being the second most massive …
Target Type R. A. Dec. Constellation Magnitudes Size M75(NGC 6864) Globular Cluster 20h 06m 05s -21° 55′ 16″ Sagittarius +8.52 6.8 arcmin Overview M75 suffers from being one of the fainter Messier clusters and from never rising very high in the sky from northern latitudes. As such, many of us miss its beauty, captured in …
