A Recreational Binocular Observing Session

After the end of a lengthy, summer, evening twilight in rural Montana
I went out to a waiting pair of tripod-mounted 25x100 binoculars
( http://www.rangeweb.net/~sketcher/Binos.html ). The tripod and
binoculars were set up prior to sunset in the "Colosseum".

Starting at my southern horizon I made slow, horizontal sweeps while
looking through the eyepieces. At the end of each sweep the
binoculars were raised a degree or so prior to starting the next
sweep. Each sweep covered roughly 80 degrees of azimuth centered
approximately on my south meridian.

Star atlases, paper, pencils, etc. were intentionally left inside for
this purely recreational stargazing session. I took no notes and made
no sketches. Instead I spent a solid two hours observing visually
(with both eyes!) in one of the richest regions of my 6.5 magnitude
sky.

At some point Storm, my old, gray cat planted himself behind me near
the entrance of the Colosseum. Storm's presence allowed me to be a
bit less cautious concerning the possibility of a rattlesnake
slithering into the Colosseum.

A wealth of celestial objects were encountered during the two-hour
session. Numerous 'fuzzy' globular star clusters were seen. Some
were much larger than others. A few beautiful, well-resolved open
clusters found their tireless photons registering within my eyes. A
small number of bright nebulae spiced up the night. I had no trouble
recognizing the Lagoon, Trifid, and Omega.

Of course, the Milky Way itself was very beautiful. Much detail in
the way of dark lanes running across more distant brighter regions was
seen. Some parts of the Milky Way were resolved into spectacularly
dense star fields. Others remained as smooth, unresolved patches of
light.

Every now and then a satellite would drift by. Binocular meteors were
encountered with about the same frequency as binocular satellites.
Close pairs of stars were often noticed. Some stars sported
noticeably different colors than the norm. Several interesting
asterisms stood out from the greater jungle of stars.

Prior to ending the session I took a quick look beyond my sweep
region. First stop was Jupiter. A pair of belts and four moons were
easy in the large binoculars. The double cluster in Perseus was
fantastic! After taking a look at a northern planetary nebula and a
nearby galaxy the session officially ended.

Sometimes it's nice to just go out and look up at the night sky. . .

Sketcher,
To sketch is to see.

On Jun 29, 8:17 pm, Sketcher wrote:

Sometimes it's nice to just go out and look up at the night sky. . .


I agree 100%!

Did you notice Neptune less than a degree North-West of Jupiter?

Now is a good time to look for it with Jupiter in the vicinity.

Jack wrote:

Did you notice Neptune less than a degree North-West of Jupiter?

I remember seeing several background "stars" :-)

Now is a good time to look for it with Jupiter in the vicinity.

Indeed it is! I failed to check on planetary positions prior to going
out last night. On a future night I'll haul out "The Iron Snowflake"
for a closer look at Neptune.

Sketcher,
To not sketch is to not see ;-)

What a wonderful post, Sketcher! Thank you for that! Somehow, words
like "report" or "observation" feel rather dry for something so
vibrant...
Lately, with darkness coming late, and the alarm clock still going
off early, and having re-savored Garrett Serviss' "Astronomy With an
Opera Glass," I've been pretty much just running out with binoculars, or
even naked eye, for a casual ramble around the sky. I always feel
better afterwards though... There's something about starlight...
Marty