Andrew Cooper
Jun 24, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 61x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Big, bright!! fully resolved, a rich and complex cluster with a lot of structure, the bright white HD174512 at the center of the central mass of stars, a body of innumerable 10-12th magnitude stars with a few 9-10 magnitude stars scattered about punctuating the appearance, surrounding the central clump a few notable break the outer structure into clumps, the whole effect is simply beautiful

Andrew Cooper
Aug 11, 2018    Kaʻohe, Mauna Kea, HI (map)
28cm f/10 SCT, NexStar 11" GyPSy @ 127x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

A beautiful cluster that fills the eyepiece, rich, fully resolved, the cluster is made up of bold clumps and dark lanes, a single bright orange star at the center

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

Bright and easy to find when scanning the summer Milky Way, good sized, not resolved, a round patch that stands out well against the Milky Way glow

Andrew Cooper
Aug 27, 2005    TIMPA, Avra Valley, AZ (map)
46cm f/4.5 Deep Violet

Rich cluster in a rich galactic star field, about 10' in diameter, cluster members surprisingly even in magnitude with one very bright orange star, a number of very obvious rifts divide the cluster into uneven clumps

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

Bright cluster, easily visible in the finder, bright star at the center, hundreds visible, but in the Milky Way, who is to say if any particular star is a member of the cluster

Rev. T.W. Webb
May 19, 1885    Hardwick, Herefordshire, England (map)
94mm f/18 Tully Achromat

Noble fan shaped cluster, "magnifica innumerabilium stellarum coacervatio" (D'A.) [a magnificent accumulation of innumerable stars?]; at the upper edge of a broad luminous cloud which marks the shield of Sobieski. Sm. compares it to a flight of wild ducks. H., stars 11 mg. divided into 5 or 6 groups, noted independently with 5-1/2ft. An 8 mg. star is a little within its apex; an open 8 mg. pair sf beyond it. H., just visible to naked eye. Sometimes placed in Scutum Sobieskii. Ellison notes "dark structures" plainly visible.

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

John Herschel
Jul 23, 1827    

A beautiful irregularly round cluster 10' or 12' in diameter. The stars are all of 11th magnitude except one which is of 9th magnitude, whose place is taken. Examined with high magnifiers [I have often viewed it with magnification 800 and even 1200]; it is broken into 5 or 6 distinct groups with rifts or cracks between them.

Charles Messier
May 30, 1764    

Cluster of a great number of small stars, near the star K of Antinous [ Scuti], which one can see only in a good instrument; with an ordinary telescope of 3 feet it resembles a comet: This cluster is mingled with a faint glow; in this cluster there is a star of 8th magnitude. Seen by Kirch in 1681. Phil. Trans. No. 347, p. 390 [Halley]. It is reported on the English Great Atlas.

― Connaissance des Temps, 1781

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

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