October 11, 2010: Messiers in and near Scutum

As usual these days, a nice dark clear cold night. Started where I left off yesterday.

• M26 
  

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  – I started at M11, which was easy to find tonight, and from there located Alpha Sct. I hopped to Delta Sct and then to M26. A bit difficult to find since it’s such a ho-hum cluster set against the milky way. Check that one off the list.

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  M16 – Open cluster with the Eagle Nebula – I panned down to Gamma Sct, which was pretty easy to find starting at Alpha (and in relation to Zeta Sct). M16 is 2.5 degrees from Gamma Sct (to the right and up a bit) and was easy to spot in the finder. The open cluster was a pretty good one, but I could hardly see the nebula. I will revisit this another time.

• M17  
  

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  – Omega (or Swan) Nebula – 2.5 degrees below M16, so I panned down from M16 and easily found this nebula in my finder. This was beautiful. I could recognize the neck of the swan. I suppose the entire nebula is a lot larger than what I see in my scope, but the bright central swan-like part is what is mostly apparent. I returned to this nebula several times to admire it.

• M18  
  

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  – This open cluster is so close to M17 that I panned down to it using the 25mm EP. Yup, an open cluster. Better than M26, but still not so exciting.

• M24  
  

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  – Star cloud – I panned over to M24 from M18 – yup, lots of stars – like a really big open cluster, but it didn’t seem very dense. I’ll have to revisit this one and take my time.

I looked for M25 but it was behind a tree. I packed it in.