[Friends_of_SSASTROS] How to Have Too Much Fun With Binoculars

[Mike McCabe]

 Greetings Intrepid Adventurers of the Sky,

Have you ever wondered what your neighbors might think if they saw you sitting in one spot outside in the dark, no lights on, binoculars pressed to your eyes and pointed up at the night sky? They'd probably be like "Honey, call the men in the white coats, Louis (or Bob, or Mike, insert your name here) has lost their marbles and is just sitting motionless in the backyard staring up at the dark sky." 
If they only knew!!!
So many people have no idea, but fortunately we know better. At the March meeting of the SSAStros I mentioned that in the latter part of the month, on the 30th specifically, you'd be able to view Mars and the open cluster M35 in the same telescopic low power field of view. Now I know that 'telescopic low power blah blah blah' is beyond what many members have any inclination to understand, never mind implement, and I'm not here to try and change that. What's not beyond any member of our group is lifting a pair of binoculars to their eyes.
Mars is indeed moving in the direction of M35, and last weekend I found that the pair just fit into the field of view of my 8x42 binoculars. That situation is getting better every day, and as they come closer together the view will most certainly improve. So, for the time being, any and every member of our fine group can call themselves and deep-sky astronomer, and then prove it by effortlessly finding the open cluster M35 in the constellation Gemini.
All you have to do is find Mars, and that's pretty easy. The red planet may have left the scene as a good telescopic target some time ago, but it's still way up high in the night sky and shining pretty brightly at .86 magnitude. For reference, that's about the same magnitude as all those bright stars in the same area of the sky, like Aldebaran, Procyon, Betelgeuse, etc. 
And it's RED as all get-out! In one of the more interesting facets of astronomy, with some objects, as they dim their color intensifies and that's true with Mars down to a certain point. I can say with absolute certainty that Mars is spectacularly red in a pair of binos right now.
Use the chart below, which is also attached to this email in PDF form, to help you locate the slowly departing Red Faced God of War in the sky. You'll note that the chart has many highlighted objects as well. That's just in case you really want to get the neighbors thinking, because if you just park a chair pointing southwest around 8:30pm in the upcoming evenings you won't have to get up and move to see any of the highlighted targets, which are some of the finest open cluster targets in the winter night sky, so you might be there long enough to get them wondering what should be done about you. 


Memorize the orientation of the image below to understand where you should put Mars in your field of view to know where M35 will be. Basically, from a clock-face perspective, if you put Mars at around 4 o'clock you should see the open cluster at around 10 o'clock. This orientation is contingent upon which way you are facing when you look at it and will vary slightly if you're facing, say, west when you look.

Remember, it is the duty of every amateur astronomer to baffle the uninitiated into wondering what the heck we're up to. So get out there, sit, stare in wonderment, and then hand the binos to the white coat people when they come for you. When it becomes clear to the neighbors that you've converted them to your strange ways, who are they going to call next? Ghost Busters?
keep Looking Up!
Mike McCabe



 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230323/470bf913/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1679586159864blob.jpg
Type: image/png
Size: 75150 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230323/470bf913/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1679586531113blob.jpg
Type: image/png
Size: 145099 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230323/470bf913/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Mid-March Bino Quicky.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 143507 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230323/470bf913/attachment.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1679587661813blob.jpg
Type: image/png
Size: 562513 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20230323/470bf913/attachment-0002.png>