"Mmmm," could describe evening viewing during February this
is not a reference to taste as much as it is toward the various Messier
objects that are within 'reach' of binoculars and small telescopes.
Use this sky chart as a guide to locating them.
(click on the thumbnail image to the left)
At the feet of the Gemini Twins, above Orion's up raised right arm,
is M-35, a cluster of several hundred stars approximately 2800 light years distant,
that is just visible to the unaided eye, and easily seen through binoculars or
small telescope.
Further south, about 13 degrees (two 7x50 binocular fields of view) east of
the bright star Sirius are a pair of star clusters, M-46
and M-47. While they
appear side-by-side M-46 is more than 5000 light years away while M-47 is much closer
at a distance of about 1600 light years. M-47 is the brighter of the two and is more
easily seen than M-46.
Within about 12 degrees are two more open star clusters visible
through binoculars. Twelve degrees north of M-47 is M-50, a cluster of
fewer than one hundred stars. About the same distance away but on the other side of
the bright star Sirius is the star cluster M-41. While small in number of stars
it contains enough bright stars to to be seen in dark skies with the unaided eye.
|