Shingletown, 10/13/07

by Teri Smoot

One of my goals for the night was to get a naked eye view of M31 and then confirm that with the binoculars. I had tried to see M31 naked eye at SSP and was never sure (it was lower in the sky then). This time, I actually did see it and confirmed where I thought it was in the 15x50's (and M31 -- being as big as it is -- was very nice in the 15x50's -- I probably had a better view than I do with the 14 inchers at the observatory since the FOV is so much larger).

While I was trying to find M31, I kept coming to a patch of sky that was a bit brighter than normal that was a fair piece down from M31 (and a bit smaller than the brightest parts of M31). I asked a couple of people if they had an idea as to what I was seeing with no clear consensus. After I got home, I checked my sky map and I think I was seeing M33 (the location was right). If so, I'm a bit suprised that I could actually see it in the 15x50's.

While I was enjoying that part of the sky, I also noticed that I could get the double cluster as a naked eye object. I looked at that with the bino's and it was very nice. Erik then put Shneor's 22 on one part of the cluster (don't know which part) and the stars just filled the eyepiece. Shneor didn't mention this (and scoffed at open clusters a bit) but I recommend that people enjoy at least this cluster with their dobs.

I also did a fair amount of traipsing through the Saggitarius area with the 15x50's. I love that part of the sky and looked at M8 (can easily see the nebulosity at Shingletown), M20, M22, M16 and M17. While journeying around this part of the sky, I also checked out M24. This usually doesn't look like much but the large FOV of the binoculars really made it look nice. I can now see why Messier might have thought it was a comet. Around this time, my bino's dewed up and I put them back in the car.

Otherwise, the views were as Shneor stated. Too bad the transparency took the hit it did. I would have liked to see some of the Orion sights later if I could have handled the cold and it would have been worth waiting for.