More bino-Messier objects.....

I went out to the Onan observatory on 18th Jan 2009, a moderately cold Saturday evening. I was surprised to find a few members of the Minnesota Astronomical Society (MAS) out there. I learnt that they had come to tidy up some equipment and other stuff.

The skies were extremely clear and almost perfect, a 9/10. I used my Celestron Upscale 10X50 binoculars and finally today, I was able to peek at M41, the open cluster in Canis Major. Although easy to find, I was unable to observe this cluster mainly because it used to be too low on the horizon. I was out at the observatory a little late and at 08:12pm, I could make out the cluster. It is a few degrees South of the bright star Sirius. Through binoculars, it appears as a small collection of stars.

Next up was the beautiful Beehive cluster, M44 in Cancer. Most cancer stars are faint to it took some time to locate the exact position initially but soon figured it out. A small group of stars is all that is seen through the binoculars.

Then I moved closer to the meridian, to M34. It is a open cluster in Perseus. Finding this one is easy as it is located very close to the line connecting Almach (Gamma Andromeda) to Algol in Perseus. I moved West to Cygnus for M29, another open cluster. It is located at about 10'O'clock position from Deneb, when Cygnus is setting. Seen as a small patch.

I also looked at M31, the great galaxy in Andromeda. Under these nice skies, the galaxy is clearly visibe to the naked eye. With binoculars, I could clearly make out a fuzzy patch with a white central core and a fainter outer area. I also looked at a number of objects that I observed previously, the three open clusters in Auriga, M36, M37 and M38, the Pleiades (M45) and the Orion Nebula, M42.

The skies started clouding up and I had to abondon my pursuit. I hope to have more objects on my list to get the astro-league Bino-Messier certificate.