So tonight, even though we had a temperature of 17F (-8C) I decided to head out in the backyard while bundled up to see what I could spot in the sky. The one thing going for me tonight was that there was very little, or no wind.
Since I wasn’t planning on going out very long tonight, I only wanted to use my binoculars. Before hand, I sat them outside to make sure they were adjusted to the cold. This is very important with optical equipment. If you are familiar with telescopes, you know that they can form fog on the mirrors just like if you were to take a hot shower, you bathroom mirror would become all foggy.
Tonight, I started to go for some easily seen, naked eye winter objects. These are all my favorite objects, and if you live in a suburban area, you should be able to see most of these objects naked eye.
Before I go out, I always check a few things. The first thing I recommend checking is your local . I often find these clocks much more accurate then your local weather station. After that, I have a look at my personal weather station for the temperature and humidity which is reported from my back yard.\If the conditions are met for me, I will head on out! Even though it was very cold tonight I still wanted to head on out. Starting out there was a thing patch of haze moving in that you could tell was there due to the glow of the Moon. This is a reason why I only stayed out for about a half hour.
I started out with what I though would be the dimmest objects to help keep my eyes nice and dark adapted. The first one was the Pleiades. The Pleiades or the Seven Sisters are a easily seen, naked eye object high in the South-Eastern part of your sky around night fall. To find them, look straight up, and you will see a tiny grouping of stars. I enjoy looking at The Seven Sisters through my binoculars more than my telescope. Since the binoculars offer a wider field of view, you often have what I think as a wider field of view when looking at objects that tend to stretch out. Since the haze was moving in, I could not see a lot of background detail, however, I could easily pick out six stars. Also, while looking at The Pleiades naked eye, I looked a little off to the side, which usually provides a better view of astronomical objects.
After The Pleiades, I turned to my left to take a look at M42 - The Great Orion Nebula. Even under a thing patch of haze, I could still see this naked eye. To find M42, find the easily seen constellation Orion the Hunter. Once you are at Orion, go to his belt, and then the far left star in the belt. Look down from that star, and you will see M42. Naked eye under clear, crisp nights, M42 seems like a green / blue fuzzy haze to me. It is really neat to look at naked eye!
Next, I went down to the left from M42, to look at the brightest star in our sky - Sirius. Sirius is impossible to miss. If you look up, you cannot miss it! I just wanted to take a quick peek at it though the binoculars to see what was happening with it. Not too much was going on, but since it is so bright, I thought I would go for it.
Finally, I ended up looking at the Moon. If the Moon is full, always save it for last. The Moon can quickly ruin your dark-adapted eyes. Wow. The Moon tonight had a lot to offer! The Moon is also a great binocular object. When I study The Moon, I tend to go right for the darker areas - creators - of The Moon. They are just great to look at. Imagining how deep they go, and how many miles wide they are just blows your mind sometimes! Also, The Moon was so full and bright tonight, that I could have sat in a lawn chair and read a book under it!
Wrapping up, despite the full Moon and the slowly moving in haze, I still wanted to get a peek at what was going on out there. As I was wrapping up, I could slowly see Saturn peeking up over my trees. Since the haze was getting more thick, I didntt want to stay out in the cold to look at it. If you have extremely steady hands - or even a binocular tripod - I’ve heard that you can start to pickup the rings of Saturn. Saturn is just starting to come up on the winter planets list. On February 24th, it will be at opposition. Just a heads up so you can mark it on your calendar!
I hope you enjoyed this observing report. Let me know what you think over at daniel@rigelastronomy.com
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