Last night -- it was gorgeous

by Jamie Dillon


So said Richard, and I knew I'd forgotten something cheerful to report. Last night was the first time in a couple of weeks that we had bright stars overhead. I was fall down tired and chicken to pull out the scope, figured I'd start dropping things. Went out and stared at those stars, then had a simple brainstorm.

Went back to my ancestral roots and pulled out the binocs and tripod. It was a year ago November that I saw the big clusters in Auriga for the first time, thru these same binocs, two months before this telescope thing started up.

Had fun before my eyes really started to close, cruising thru the gaudy spots. Up to Gemini, gazed at M35. Over to M38, M36 on to M37. Wondered at M42 and actually saw 4 stars in the Trap for brief stretches with averted vision.

Kept coming back to Betelgeuse, which was a rich deep ruby color last night in our sky. Just show-stopping. Visited the Beehive, wandered over to Leo, which had moved up significantly in two weeks but was still in Salinan skyglow in the east. This was just after 11 pm. Couldn't get a glimmer of those big Messier galaxies in the binocs.

M41 was bright, sitting under Sirius, and also conspicuous was that big cluster on Monoceros on the way from Sirius to Procyon. M50.

Ended with long minutes getting a load of Betelgeuse, what a color. Simple minds, simple pleasures.