Andrew Cooper
Aug 9, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 5 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Big! Bright! A sublime sight in the eyepiece, a massive swarm of faint stars fills the field, fully resolved, a gradual brightening to a broad core, round, 30' in diameter

Andrew Cooper
Jun 27, 2020    Waikoloa Quarry, HI (map)
8x42mm Nikon Prostaff 3S Binoculars @ 8x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Bright and easy to locate in binoculars half a field northeast of Kaus Borealis, decent size at 15', bright, round, brighter to the center, not resolved

Andrew Cooper
Jun 29, 2019    Kaʻohe, Mauna Kea, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 56x
Seeing: 8 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Absolutely beautiful, a rich swarm of stars in a neat globe, rich, fully resolved, well concentrated, easy to find with the telrad off Kaus Borealis and 2° east

Andrew Cooper
Aug 11, 2017    Waikoloa, HI (map)
Hodgepodge w/TV-76mm f/6 APO @ 30x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

A bright conspicuous swarm of stars just above the Teapot's lid, innumerable stars in a compact cluster, just barely resolved at 30x, quite pretty even in a modest telescope

Andrew Cooper
May 30, 2017    Hale Pohaku, HI (map)
46cm f/4.5 Newtonian, Deep Violet @ 175x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 24%

Beautiful!! A dense globular in a very rich starfield, large at over 15' in diameter, bright, gradually denser to the core

Andrew Cooper
Apr 19, 2012    Hale Pohaku, HI (map)
46cm f/4.5 Newtonian, Deep Violet @ 175x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Big! Bright! Beautiful! A large cluster in a rich starfield at least 10' across, fully resolved, a swarm of stars to delight the eye in a big 'scope, not particularly condensed at the core

Andrew Cooper
Jun 11, 2010    Hale Pohaku, HI (map)
46cm f/4.5 Newtonian, Deep Violet @ 175x
Seeing: 8 Transparency: 7.5 Moon: 0%

Large! Bright! a spectacular cluster in a large scope, fully resolved, not notably concentrated at the core, a coarse appearance lent by an assortment of magnitudes in the stellar population, a very rich galactic starfield makes it difficult to ascertian the margins and judge the size

Andrew Cooper
May 24, 1998    Picacho Peak State Park, AZ (map)
20cm f/10 SCT

Bright, pretty compact globular cluster, stars easily resolved

Rev. T.W. Webb
May 19, 1885    Hardwick, Herefordshire, England (map)

Beautiful bright cl., very interesting from visibility of components, largest 10 and 11 mg., which makes it a valuable object for common telescopes, and a clue to the structure of many more distant or difficult neb. h., makes all the stars of two sizes, 11 and 15 mg., as if 'one shell over another,' and thinks the larger ones ruddy. Midway between μ and σ.

― Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, T. W. Webb, 1917

Charles Messier
Jun 5, 1764    

Nebula, below the ecliptic, between the head and the bow of Sagittarius, near a star of 7th magnitude, 25 Sagittarii, according to Flamsteed, this nebula is round, it doesn't contain any star, & one can see it very well in an ordinary telescope of 3.5-foot; the star Lambda Sagittarii served for determination. Abraham Ihle, a German, discovered it in 1665, while observing Saturn. M. Le Gentil observed it in 1747, & he made an engraving of it. Memoirs of the Academy, year 1759, page 470. Seen again March 22, 1781; it is reported in the English Atlas.

― Connaissance des Temps, 1781

William Herschel
20 ft Newtonian

A most beautiful extensive cluster of stars, of various magnitudes, very compressed in the middle, and about 8' in diameter, besides the scattered ones, which do fill the extent of the field of view [15']: the large stars are red; the small ones are pale red.

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

A complete list of credits and sources can be found on the about page