Wow what a report, a great read.
Coincidently my first galaxy was M104, I remember printing out charts of the asterisms to help me find it. Those 3 stars point straight at it so it was not to hiden. The first thing i thought when I saw this magestic galaxy was wow I am seeing light that has travelled for 30 million years and that image of the galaxy was 30 million years old. It was the first time I realised I had a light time machine.
Ngc 6231 is quite a lovely cluster forming a part of the grand constellation of scorpius. I like the mixture of very beight and slighty dimmer stars vey much like the jewel box.
Thank you very much for posting Shelley, this report has stirred aome great memories.
I hope to be under the stars soon. His has made me feel like doing some observing tonight even if I have school the next day.
Regards Orestis