Globular clusters are impressive in any telescope big enough to show their individual stars. I have to admit, however, that I haven't paid too much attention to them, considering them to have more or less the same appearance in the telescope (except for some variation in size and brightness). So why not just observe M13 and skip M2, M3, M5, M15, M53...?
During my visit to the south, however, I found many globulars with pretty unusual appearance. The first one we observed from La Palma was M4. It is a very beautiful cluster, many of its individual stars being very bright. The cluster was nearly split in two by a conspicuous chain of bright stars, and an orange pair south of this chain immediately caught my attention.
Three clusters were easily seen with the naked eye from La Palma, M13, M22 and Omega Centauri. M22 also containes quite a few bright individual stars, and is a very appealing cluster.
From photos I had the impression that Omega Centauri was just another globular, only brighter than e.g. M13. Observing it though the telescope, however, gives a completely different impression. It is awesome. The number of stars visible is enormous, and although it lacks outstanding individual stars, it is beautiful beyond words. To get all the outliers within the field of view, I had to use the lowest magnification (63x), but it looked even more glorious at 115x in the wide field of the Nagler eyepiece.
In addition to those very bright globulars, we observed quite a few other interesting ones. M62 appeared clearly un-symmetrical, giving an impression of the cluster moving at high speed with some of its members tending to lag behind. This was most obvious at low magnification. Some clusters were larger and brighter than I expected. NGC5897 in Libra is a very good object, which seems to be neglected. In Sagittarius, M55 was a positive surprise. I liked it more than slightly brighter M28. Even NGC6723 near the Corona Australis border turned out to be a very fine globular, better than many Messier clusters.
NGC6397 in Ara is large, bright with many bright individual stars. This excellent object made a pretty good view from La Palma, but it was quite close to the horizon, and a few degrees of extra elevation would have made it even more impressive.
The last object I'd like to mention here is the "third" globular of Hercules. Everybody are familiar with M13, and M92. Even further north in the constellation, there is another globular, NGC6229. I observed it for the first time from La Palma. It forms a nice equilateral triangle with two 8th magnitude stars, and although I couldn't resolve it (possibly due to poor seeing) it had a very delicate appearance.
Inge s
During my visit to the south, however, I found many globulars with pretty unusual appearance. The first one we observed from La Palma was M4. It is a very beautiful cluster, many of its individual stars being very bright. The cluster was nearly split in two by a conspicuous chain of bright stars, and an orange pair south of this chain immediately caught my attention.
Three clusters were easily seen with the naked eye from La Palma, M13, M22 and Omega Centauri. M22 also containes quite a few bright individual stars, and is a very appealing cluster.
From photos I had the impression that Omega Centauri was just another globular, only brighter than e.g. M13. Observing it though the telescope, however, gives a completely different impression. It is awesome. The number of stars visible is enormous, and although it lacks outstanding individual stars, it is beautiful beyond words. To get all the outliers within the field of view, I had to use the lowest magnification (63x), but it looked even more glorious at 115x in the wide field of the Nagler eyepiece.
In addition to those very bright globulars, we observed quite a few other interesting ones. M62 appeared clearly un-symmetrical, giving an impression of the cluster moving at high speed with some of its members tending to lag behind. This was most obvious at low magnification. Some clusters were larger and brighter than I expected. NGC5897 in Libra is a very good object, which seems to be neglected. In Sagittarius, M55 was a positive surprise. I liked it more than slightly brighter M28. Even NGC6723 near the Corona Australis border turned out to be a very fine globular, better than many Messier clusters.
NGC6397 in Ara is large, bright with many bright individual stars. This excellent object made a pretty good view from La Palma, but it was quite close to the horizon, and a few degrees of extra elevation would have made it even more impressive.
The last object I'd like to mention here is the "third" globular of Hercules. Everybody are familiar with M13, and M92. Even further north in the constellation, there is another globular, NGC6229. I observed it for the first time from La Palma. It forms a nice equilateral triangle with two 8th magnitude stars, and although I couldn't resolve it (possibly due to poor seeing) it had a very delicate appearance.
Inge s
