M55 in Sagittarius

I almost gave up on finding M55 tonight. I'm sure I've seen it once before, during a Messier Party, but in urban skies, its surface brightness is nil and unremarkable. Guess I forgot. It is large though and once I found it and settled down to take a look, it resolved nicely but it is quite diffuse. I was trolling through Sagittarius tonite looking at the globs and nebulas and as a last observation decided to look at M55. I'm looking just above a 6' tall wooden fence and a tree to the left. I now know I must have slewed past it probably twice thinking the core was brighter than it is. What with the sweat streaming down my face, body heat fogging the ep, and swatting mesquitos and such, I feel lucky to have found it 8O . Anyways, that's my story and I'm sticking to it

BTW there are alot of nice doubles in the field below the teapot that distracted me. A nice distraction for a change. One double in particular. It makes an approximate triangle with Epsilon and Zeta, the bottom two stars of the teapot. Only a few arc seconds of separation and mag 9 or 10. Typical cat eyes.

regards

DCR

M55 is an excellent object but northern latitudes don't do it much justice. As seen from the southern hemisphere it is certainly among the top ten globular clusters. I had some great views of M55 from Bolivia through a 22" Starmaster last week and in June of 2002.

Dave Mitsky