A Summertime Exercise
A Summertime Exercise Last weekend I was observing Messier globular clusters with binoculars. At some point wondered if it's possible to view them all at this time of year. I managed to see 27 out of a possible 29 without much difficulty. M68 was lost in Corvus to the West and M79 is in the winter sky under Orion. Doing the tour with hand held binoculars was a good exercise in star hopping. The most difficult were M75 and M70 in Sagittarius and M72 in Aquarius. The last to show was M30 in Capricorn some time after midnight. The next night I had my Dobsonian out and used the setting circles to do the same tour leisurely between other objects of interest. Looking at so many in one night shows the wide variety in these objects, from the misty glow of M71 to the stark core collapse of M15 to the broad expanses of M13, M22, and M55. Each one has it's own character. I recommend this exercise with any optics no matter the size.
From Wolf Creek this weekend it was fantastic.
DT
That's an excellent project, Daniel. As a kid in the late '60's & early '70's, I would hunt-down globulars with my dad's binocular, from our yard on Salt Lake's east bench. The skies were better back then, especially after midnight when many outdoor lights were turned off and traffic was off the road. Not good, but much better than it is now. Not being able to get to dark-sky sites, I still use binoculars to hunt-down globulars and planetary nebula from my current back yard in the middle of the SL valley. Both classes of objects are not as adversely affected by light pollution as galaxies and extended nebulae. If not using a binocular, I use my 80mm ED refractor. An O3 filter makes PN's downright easy. When I get more free time I'd like to try this project with my 10" Newt and bino-viewer. The 10" was designed with oodles of focuser "IN" travel for a special project nearly 20 years ago, so it doesn't need the relay Barlow with the bino-viewer. If you get a chance, Daniel, see how many Caldwell objects you can nab on any given night.
participants (2)
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Chuck Hards -
daniel turner