M56

From South Dublin Astronomical Society

M56
Type	Globular cluster
NGC	NGC 6779
Constellation	Lyra
Right Ascension	19h 16.6m
Declination	+30° 11'
Magnitude	8.2
Size	8.8 arc min.
Image:M56 messier image.jpg

Half-way between Albireo (Beta Cygni) and Gamma Lyrae is a globular cluster that takes a little patience to tease out of the starry background. M56 appears as a less condensed spot of hazy light than some of the other globulars highlighted in the handbook and under poor seeing conditions you might have a little trouble spying it in low power binoculars. A faint star is located at the western edge of the cluster but this is just in the foreground. The star doesn’t appear to be marked in the older 1st volume of Uranometria 2000.0 but is confirmed through checking the on-line Digital Sky Survey. M56 is 32,900 light-years distant and estimated to be about 85 light years across. The surrounding field is peppered with many faint stars. Burnham’s Celestial Handbook comments that Charles Messier himself found this cluster in January 1779 on the very same night that he discovered one of his comets. Messier’s notes describe M56 as a “nebula without stars and having little light.”