Thanks, that brought back memories, I don’t think I would have ever linked the name to that cluster without that picture of it, I used to watch it with some really old binos when I was about 11 – 14 years old, but never knew what its name was until tonight, I guess sometimes you just have to see them exactly as you saw them before to recognize them uh? On 2011-06-25 04:16, Canopus56 wrote:

http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=4394

Ptolemy's Cluster is one of my favorite binocular objects, even though it is so close to the horizon as seen from Utah. This cluster is just outside the Sagittarius Arm gas wall towards the galactic center. This relatively close cluster (800 lyr) makes a nice size contrast with the more typically mid-distant open clusters like M23 (2,000 lyr) or the closer M45 (440 lyr) or the really close Ursa Major Moving Group (80 lyr).

This bad M7 image was taken 6-20-2011 from a light polluted urban location and between clouds. Canon Xsi 450 f/6 10 secs 800 ISO on poor tracking mount.

- Clear Skies Kurt

Any idea why it's called Ptolemy's cluster? Might be a good story there. I've always seen a butterfly in the eyepiece. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Canopus56 Sent: Friday, June 24, 2011 10:16 PM To: Utah Astronomy List Serv Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Bad Ptolemy Cluster http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=4394 Ptolemy's Cluster is one of my favorite binocular objects, even though it is so close to the horizon as seen from Utah. This cluster is just outside the Sagittarius Arm gas wall towards the galactic center. This relatively close cluster (800 lyr) makes a nice size contrast with the more typically mid-distant open clusters like M23 (2,000 lyr) or the closer M45 (440 lyr) or the really close Ursa Major Moving Group (80 lyr). This bad M7 image was taken 6-20-2011 from a light polluted urban location and between clouds. Canon Xsi 450 f/6 10 secs 800 ISO on poor tracking mount. - Clear Skies Kurt _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1382 / Virus Database: 1513/3715 - Release Date: 06/20/11