On the night of June 17, 2020 I pointed the 8" SCT towards the constellation Lyra to get a view of globular cluster M56. This globular cluster lies around 32,900 light years away from Earth and has a magnitude of 8.3. This small faint fuzzy patch of stars has a diameter of 60 light years, but given its distance seems relatively small in the sky. The stars of the cluster were relatively dim and quite hard to resolve the stars, especially those in the core of the cluster.
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| M56 Globular Cluster in Lyra |
Using my 8" SCT and 8-24mm zoom set at 24mm I was able to spot this globular cluster among the background stars. It was quite dim and hard to resolve the stars. I used black canson paper, and white charcoal pencil for the star placements. I used a white pastel pencil and blending stump to get the glowing effect of the globular cluster laid down, and then used the stippling technique to place the stars of the cluster as accurately as I could.
To see where this object is located in the sky along with a time lapse of me sketching M56 at the eyepiece check out the video below:
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