The Caldwell Objects

107
NGC 6101
Type: Globular
Cluster Con: Apus
RA: 16 h 25 m 49.6 s
Dec: -72° 12' 06"
Mag: 9.2
Diam: 10.7'
Dist: 49,900 light-years
Disc: James Dunlop,
included in his 1827
catalog
J. H ERSCHEL: Globular
cluster, large, faint, round,
very gradually a little
brighter in the middle, all
resolved into stars 15th to
18th magnitude, 4' [in] diam[eter], with stragglers. A
delicate and beautiful object, (h 3623)
GC: Globular cluster, large, faint, round, very
gradually a little brighter in the middle, all resolved
into stars
A PUS, THE B IRD OF P ARADISE, HAS AN
intriguing history. Its name is derived from the
Greek apous, meaning "without feet." It refers to
the fabled legless sparrows of Greek mythology,
which Keats later glorified in his "Eve of Saint
Mark" as "legless birds of paradise." However, it
is not the sparrow that Apus represents but the
large feathered curiosities brought aboard the
European sailing vessels of the 16th century.
These birds the explorers called Apus (also Avis)
Indica, the Indian Bird. The bird was first
introduced to the people of Europe in 1522, when
some skins were found on the sole surviving ship
of Magellan's fateful expedition. It is from these
and subsequent remains that the Spaniards, and
later other Europeans, created their own myths
about the bird. So it is of little wonder, then, that
Apus
15.. 18th mag, 4' diam, with stragglers. A delicate and
beautiful object.
NGC: Globular cluster, pretty faint, large, irregularly round,
very gradually brighter in the middle, partially resolved, stars
of 14th magnitude.
107
ultimately found its way into a section of the
southern sky dedicated to the tools and treasures
of these great explorers. Ironically, when the
great bird finally appeared in Johann Bayer's
original 1603 atlas (and its corresponding page of
text) it did so under the name "Apis Indica" (the
Indian Bee). But this, notes Richard Hinckley
Allen, is obviously a typographical error.
Remember, Bayer did have a constellation called
Apis, which Abbe Nicolas Louis de Lacaille later
renamed Musca, the Fly (see page 418). The
typographers and engravers obviously misread
Apus for Apis. (So book reviewers take note: to
err has long been human.) The error was fixed on
later editions of Bayer's atlas.
Apus is conveniently placed just south of
Triangulum Australe, and its two brightest stars,
both of 4th magnitude, lie about a fist's width
The Caldwell Objects 423