M-71 (NGC-6838)

M-71 has been classed separately as a globular and an open cluster. To date I am not sure which it really is. Shaped like a giant comma, it has the fuzziness and sprinkling of stars of a globular, but it has the unspherical shape of an open. Is it a distant, dense open? Or a broken, dented globular? My own guess was that it is an open in front of a globular. In any case, M-71 is a small, beautiful punctuation mark in the sky.

NGC: 6838
OTHER NAMES: M-71
CLASS: globular or open cluster
SIZE: 6.1'
MAGNITUDE: +9
DISTANCE: 17,900 light years
POSITION: 19h 53m -18d 36'
CONSTELLATION: Sagitta
DATE OF SKETCH: 10/03/75
MAGNIFICATION USED: 140x