#6 A SOUTHERN GEM

 21st September 2020

      Sagittarius' many wonders are usually hidden by buildings from my location but a gap in the houses allows me seek out one or two now and then. NGC 6818 is a Planetary Nebula that lies in the northern part of the constellation and is known as the "Little Gem". Visually at x78 this appears like a well defined out of focus magnitude 8 star. No structure is visible but there is a hint of blue colour.

NGC 6819

 Back up north now to Cygnus with the video camera and 8" SCT.

NGC 6811 Well defined and fairly large Open Cluster in rich field. About 30 bright stars in a circular grouping.

NGC 6819  A smaller more compact Open Cluster the brightest stars of which are formed into two lines. Many fainter stars surround these. Certainly worth having a closer look sometime.

NGC 6866  Slightly larger Open Cluster than 6819 but more sparse and fewer fainter stars. Main group of brighter stars elongated north - south with lesser chains going east- west.

M29

M29 The brightest stars of this Open Cluster form a surprisingly similar pattern to NGC 6819 just observed. However there are far fewer fainter stars and even larger telescopes do not reveal many more.