Once you’re finished tracking the objects in this month’s columns, point your binoculars south to three gems: M10, M12, and M14.
Phil Harrington
Bob and Janice Fera created this image with a Parallax Instruments 12.5-inch Ritchey-Chrétien telescope at f/9 and an SBIG ST-10XE CCD camera. The image is an RGB composite of 15, 15, and 15 minutes, respectively. The images were taken at Mt. Pinos, California on June 28, 2003.
Bob and Janice Fera
Charles Messier cataloged seven globular clusters within the broad boundaries of Ophiuchus. Here’s three more.
M10 and M12 lie in the same binocular field, centrally placed in the hexagonal body of Ophiuchus. To find them, cast off from the star Cebalrai and head west to Sigma Ophiuchi. Move southwestward to a right triangle of stars (41 Oph is at the right angle) and then take another hop to the southwest, to 30 Oph. Look just to its west for M10’s small fuzzy disk. M12 is to its northwest, just beyond a pair of field stars.
Now, try for M14. Although its immediate area is kind of sparse, M14 is fairly easy to find about two-thirds of the way along a line connecting Cebalrai with Mu Ophiuchi. Although fainter than both M10 and M12, M14 is still a nice catch through binoculars.
