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(IAAC) Obj: M22, M28 - Inst: Naked eye, 7x50 binoculars
Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate
Date and UT of Observation: 1997-07-4/5, 03:40 UT
Location: Savoy, MA, USA (42N, elev 700m)
Site classification: rural
Limiting magnitude: 7.1 (zenith)
Seeing: 5 of 10 - mediocre, increasing cumulus
Moon up: no
Instrument: Naked eye, 50mm Simmons binoculars
Magnification: 1x, 7x
Filters used: None
Object: M22, M28
Category: Globular clusters
Constellation: Sgr
Data: mags 5.2, 6.9 sizes 24', 11'
RA/DE: 18h30m -24o
Description:
M22 was barely spotted with the naked eye, in spite of its
low altitude, 2o NE of lambda Sgr amid the background blur.
M22 even in binoculars was a suprisingly LARGE, glittering
ball of haze, with stellarings all the way around its edges,
especially to the S and SW. Haze seemed to spray out from it
in cluttered streamers to N, S, and W, merging with a pretty
background of field stars & Milky Way haze. A yellowish star
of about mag 8 was noted on its NE edge. Visible in the same
binocular field with M22 were the much fainter globular M28,
and the bright yellow star lambda Sgr. Intermediate between
M22 and lambda was an apparent open cluster (no catalog #),
a pretty clustering of stars mags 6 to 10. Closer still to
lambda, the field stars appeared to attenuate somewhat. Then
about 1/4 field NW of lambda, M28 was just visible as a spot
of haze, showing loose concentration and no other detail.