Sagittarius has been seen as many different shapes by many different civilisations. It became more established as an Archer sometime after the 15th Century when it was thought it was a centaur drawing a bow.

Sagittarius half lies over a particularly rich section of the Milky Way, which also happens to be the broadest. This is because it is almost over our galaxy's core. It has probably more globular clusters than any other constellation, and is also well stocked with various nebula.

The finest globular cluster in Sagittarius is M22. It lies perhaps 10000 light years, which is one of the closest globular clusters to Earth. It is a good object to view with binoculars or telescopes. The larger the telescope means more stars are resolved and thus gives a more striking view.

M55 is another fine globular cluster, best viewed with an 8 inch or better telescope. It is a rather loose cluster that lies about 17000 light years away.

M54,M70 and M69 are very similar globular clusters with M54 having the brightest core. They are rather small and require at least a 10 inch telescope to resolve a resonable amount of stars.

Moving onto the Open Clusters, first we have M23, a rather nice open cluster with about 150 stars. Best seen with a very low power telescope. Next is M25, a very dim opon cluster with about 100 stars. A large telescope on low magnification is recommended for the best view.

One of the sparsest open clusters in the sky is M18, with a small telescope on low magnification, you should just about be able to see the 10 or so stars.

For the final open cluster we shall look at M21. It is has about 30 stars ranging from 8th to 12th magnitude. It should be viewable alongside what is known as the Trifid Nebula M20. The Trifid Nebula gets its name as it appears to be separated into three sections. In small telescopes this nebula is quite unremarkable. In an 8 or 10 inch telescope you can see more detail and the general shape, however in long exposure photographs you get to see the magnificence of this beautiful Nebula.

M8 the Lagoon Nebula is just below M20, and is bright enough to be seen by the naked eye on very dark nights. Its colour is almost the same as M20 and it is the same distance at 5100 light years from us, and so it seems likely that they are part of the same Nebulosity.

The other nebula of interest in Sagittarius which is just at the top border with Serpens, is M17 the Omega or Swan Nebula. It lies about 5000 light light years away. It is best viewed with a large telescope on low magnification or long exposure photography.