Andrew Cooper
Aug 21, 2023    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Big, bright and obvious, visible in the 40mm finder, about 40' in diameter, a coarse collection of 8th to 12th magnitude stars, fully resolved

Andrew Cooper
Aug 11, 2013    Indian Springs, Oregon Star Party (map)
Regalo de Estrella 6" f/5.4 @ 59x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

large, bright, fully resolved, a coarse cluster over 20' in diameter filling the eyepiece field with stars

Andrew Cooper
Oct 21, 2006    TIMPA, Avra Valley, AZ (map)
12x36 Canon Image Stabilized Binoculars

Bright, easily found, resolved with a group of bright members embedded in a haze of dimmer members

Andrew Cooper
Sep 30, 2005    Gila, New Mexico (map)
90mm F/12 APO Violet Haze

Nice binocular object, just visible to the unaided eye, not a very interesting telescopic object, sparse, large, coarse, a few dozen stars in a bright clump, a distinct group at the center.

Andrew Cooper
Aug 28, 2005    TIMPA, Avra Valley, AZ (map)
46cm f/4.5 Deep Violet

Big, coarse, sparse, fills the low power field, less than 100 members arranged in small clumps or short sweeps of stars.

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

Just perceptible to the naked eye; very grand low power field, one of the finest objects in its class. It contains OΣ 44, which see.

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

Captain William Henry Smyth
Oct 12, 1837    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A double star in a cluster, between the right foot of Andromeda and the head of Medusa; where a line carried from Polaris between ε Cassiopese and α Persei to within about 2° of the parallel of Algol, will meet it. A and B, 8th magnitudes, and both white. It is in a scattered but elegant group of stars from the 8th to the 13th degree of brightness, on a dark ground, and several of them form into coarse pairs. This was first seen and registered by Messier, in 1764, as a "mass of small stars;" and in 1783 was resolved by Sir W. Herschel with a seven-foot reflector: with the twenty-foot he made it "a coarse cluster of large stars of different sizes." By the method he had applied to fathom the galaxy, he concluded the profundity of this object not to exceed the 144th order.

― A Cycle of Celestial Objects Vol II, The Bedford Catalogue, William Henry Smyth, 1844

John Herschel
Dec 23, 1831    

Fine cluster; about 20 stars of 9m, 10 to 11 m and as many less. Fills field, coarsely scattered. The place given is that of the Double Star h 1123

Johann Elert Bode
Sep 2, 1774    Berlin Observatory, Germany (map)

On September 2,1774, I undertook a closer determination of the position of the star cluster which shows up to the naked eye between Algol in the Medusa's head and Alamak at the foot of Andromeda, and found its separation from Algol as 5°18', from Alamak as 7°6', and from Pi in the Medusa's Head as 4°27', and from p there as 4°51'.

Charles Messier
Aug 25, 1764    

Cluster of small stars, between the head of Medusa (Algol) & the left foot of Andromeda, a little below the parallel of Gamma [Andromedae]: with an ordinary telescope of 3 foot one can distinguish the stars. Its position has been determined from Beta, the head of Medusa.

― Connaissance des Temps, 1781

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

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