M23 is an attractive open star cluster in northwest Sagittarius. It can be found about 5.5 degrees north of the Lagoon nebula. The sketch at left records a 129X view in my 10-inch Newtonian. The bright star at the northwest edge of the field shines at 6.5 magnitude. A string of eight 11th and 12th magnitude stars extends southeast to a 10th magnitude star at the edge of the cluster's core. Some 60 stars scattered across a 25' area are shown.