General Session - June 18-19, 2020

Constellations: Ophiuchus    
Stars: 14 Oph, 16 Oph, 22 Oph, 23 Oph, 30 Oph
HD Stars: 152210, 152484, 152555, 1,152600, 53437, 153811
HR Stars: 6201, 6248  
Clusters: IC 4665/Collinder 349/Melotte 179
Messier Objects: M10, M12/NGC 6218

Location: SCO
Date: 2020-06-18/19
Time: 8:30 PM - 12:15 AM AST
Equipment: Binoculars 10x42 IS
SQM: 21.19 (at 11:14 PM)
Temperature: 16° C

This was the forest night that SCO was open following the COVID-19 lockdown that began March 20, 2019. With me were Jerry, Blair MacDonald, John McPhee and David Hoskin. It was a relatively warm night.

Ophiuchus, M10/NGC 6254, M12/NGC 6218
Equipment: Binoculars
S&T Chart: 54, 56, 67

One of my goals was to view Ophiuchus and, if possible, M10 and M12 in its centre. Success!! Both were visible in one FOV of my binoculars.  M10 had a fairly bright central core and was obviously a compact globular cluster. It was located almost central in Ophiuchus near 30 Oph, and initially looked like a bright singular star. M12 was a little dimmer and perhaps a little larger than M10. It had a bright core with a diffuse border.

	IC 4665 Time: 10:50 PM Equipment: Binoculars S&T Chart: 54 I was looking around Ophiuchus and there appeared to be several very bright points of light with too many other stars to count, and to perhaps not see given I was using binoculars.But under these skies, it was very evident and bright adjacent to β Oph (Cebarai). It was almost like there was a brighter core with about 10 bright points filled in and around it with stars of varying brightness.

M10 had a fairly bright central core and was obviously a compact globular cluster. It was located almost central in Ophiuchus near 30 Oph. It initially looked like a very bright singular star. 

M12 was a little dimmer and perhaps a little large than M10. It had a bright core with a diffuse border. 

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