backyard with binocs, early 4 January

by Jamie Dillon

It was Saturday night at 1 am and I was standing outside gazing at the stars. Sky was something like a 4.0 limiting magnitude, hazy. But over the rooftop there was the whole Dipper, and sure enough Cor Caroli. Denebola, the easternmost bright star in the tail of Leo, was over the fence. Halfway between them (you can tell where this is headed) I could just make out Berenice's Hair, barely. That's all it took, out came the binocs.

Hey, I know this isn't much of an OR, but it was with magnifying optics looking at the stars. There was that lovely cluster and harbinger of spring. Berenice's Hair, Corona Borealis and the kite of Corvus were several of my favorite patterns in spring sky when out backpacking, before 6 years ago when I finally learned their names.

Gazed at the Beehive straight ahead, caught Jupiter with one bright moon, scanned across the whole of Orion for fun, then stared at Berenice's Hair some more.

Spring's coming.