Bino Voyage!
“Urban Astronomy”: A Great Night for DSOs
Margo Schulter
["Urban Astronomy" is my project to encourage
the observing of Deep Sky Objects (DSO's)
in urban or suburban settings, with a due
acknowledgment that these objects will, of
course, be yet more impressive in darker
skies. Questions or comments by e-mail are
warmly invited.]
Saturday night was a great opportunity for some
DSO watching at Quadrivium Urban Observatory (QUO),
otherwise known as my bedroom, just north of CSUS.
As twilight deepened, Canis Major was a big
attraction, with M41 announcing a delightfully
clear night. I could say, “Good, the less than
ideal viewing earlier this year reflected mist
rather than a sudden increase in light pollution!”
The tour — with my 15×70 binoculars, handheld
with a bit of bracing for the most part, while
reclining — moved to Cr 140, often known to
dark-sky observers who see it with the naked
eye as “The Tuft in the Tail” of Canis Major,
but appearing in binoculars as what I call
Ursa Australis, or “The Southern Bear,” in
my version an asterism including stars in both
Canis Major and neighboring Puppis.
Other open clusters among my urban favorites
are Cr 132 (”Mulberry Cluster”), Cr 135
(Pi Puppis Cluster), and NGC 2451. The latter
two were evidently described by Giovanni
Battista Hodierna in 1654, whose catalogue
of nebulae, like Messier’s, includes some fine
objects for astronomers at all levels of
experience at a latitude like Southern Sicily’s
or Sacramento’s.
One notable event occurred around 1920, when
a satellite (moving mostly north to south)
passed just east of M41. I followed it for
a bit, and then lost the track when I looked
at a red LED clock to check the time. I guess
that I have a strong “hunter’s instinct” to
chase tofu and satellites.
As the evening continued, I was pleased to
locate one of my favorite objects: M93, a good
example of a “faint fuzzy” still clearly visible
with 15×70 binoculars in an urban setting.
At some point, I also did a bit of careful
positioning to get a view of the Sword of Orion:
NGC 1981 and 1977, M42, and NGC 1980. This was
an especially appropriate sight, since this
month marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s
_Sidereus Nuncius_, the “Starry Messenger”
(or, perhaps, the “Celestial News”). While it
was his planetary observations which became
the main focus of immediate attention, his
deep sky observations (with M42 and M45, the
Pleiades, as examples of how many more stars
became visible with his primitive telescope)
would inspire Hodierna to make his much more
extensive catalogue and atlas maps.
Gamma Velorum in Vela, “The Sails,” also seemed
in evidence: at a declination of around
-47 degrees, this star marked about the southern
limit of Hodierna’s maps, as was a test of my
ability to see around, or through, some lofty
trees that have apparently been getting a bit
taller in my neighborhood.
A final treat of the evening was the “Alien”
asterism including the bright and reddish
star Lambda Velorum: this asterism looks a
bit like a sidewise view of the head of a
friendly extraterrestrial with what might
be antennae (with east-west as “up-down”).
My warm thanks to Andrie van der Linde, an
amateur astronomer in South Africa whose
newsletter called this charming asterism
to my attention!
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