Andrew Cooper
Jun 20, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
28cm f/10 SCT, NexStar 11" GyPSy @ 127x
Seeing: 5 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

A very nice globular cluster, big, bright, fully resolved, a very dense core, 5Ser is 20' south

Andrew Cooper
Apr 19, 2012    Hale Pohaku, HI (map)
46cm f/4.5 Newtonian, Deep Violet @ 175x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Big, bright, lovely, a coarse appearance with chains of stars sweeping out from a sharp central condensation, fully resolved, about 10' in diameter, one of the finest globulars in the sky

Andrew Cooper
Jun 17, 2006    TIMPA, Avra Valley, AZ (map)
90mm f/12 APO Refractor Violet Haze

Beautiful globular! large, bright, fully resolved with the 90mm @ 147x, a beautiful blaze of stars in the very concentrated core of the cluster, a number of brighter members give a coarse appearance to the periphery, about 10' across the main body but it appears there are outliers out to about 20'

Andrew Cooper
May 25, 2006    Gila, NM (map)
46cm f/4.5 Deep Violet

Absolutely beautiful!! Large! Bright! fully resolved to the core, fills the field at 175x, the core is solidly filled with stars with no blackness showing between stars, a perfect 'blaze' in the old terminology, many chains of brighter stars in the margins lead out from the core

Andrew Cooper
Jun 5, 1999    TIMPA, Avra Valley, AZ (map)
15cm f/5.1 Newtonian Primero

Good sized globular, well resolved in the 6" f/5.1 newtonian. Very rich in stars, pencil dots do not convey the fineness of the detail and all the stars

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

Beautiful assemblage of minute stars (h., 11-15 mg.), greatly compressed in centre. M. saw none. H. about 200 with 40-ft. reflector. E. of Rosse, curved exterior branches.; seen also by Buffham, with 9-in. mirror. Packer finds two stars among the outliers var. Confirmed at Harvard. Closely np 5 Serp. 5 mg.

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

William Herschel
Feb 24, 1786    Observatory House, Slough (map)
45cm f/12.8 Herschelian speculum

The most beautiful extremely compressed cluster of small stars; the greatest part of them gathered together into a brilliant nucleus, evidently consisting of stars, surrounded with many detached gathering stars of the same size and colour.

Charles Messier
May 23, 1764    

Beautiful nebula discovered between the Balance & the Serpent, near the star in the Serpent, of 6th magnitude, which is the 5th according to the Catalogue of Flamsteed catalogue: it doesn't contain any star; it is round, & one sees it very well, in a fine sky, with an ordinary refractor of 1-foot. M. Messier has reported it in the chart of the comet of 1763. Mem. Acad for the year 1774, page 40. Seen again on Sep. 5, 1780, January 30 & March 22, 1781.

― Connaissance des Temps, 1781

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