Binocular tour

Discover a Leaping Minnow, a trio of clusters and The Crab and California Nebulae

1. The Queen of Clusters, M35

First of all identify the mag. +4.2 1 Geminorum and look a little less than 2° to the northeast, where you will find an obvious misty patch about the same size as the Moon. On a good night, you ought to be able to resolve a dozen stars in your 10x50s. Also try using averted vision to see if you can glimpse open cluster, NGC 2158, which is half a degree towards 1 Geminorum. ! SEEN IT

2. Telescopium Herschelii

In 1789, Vienna Observatory director Maximilian Hell, honoured William Herschel’s discovery of Uranus by commandeering a region of Auriga and Lynx and naming it for Herschel’s telescope. The brightest stars are the 5th magnitude Psi (s) Aurigae group. It’s a rewarding region to scan with binoculars, owing to the variety of colours among the brighter stars. The small blur just south of s-7 Aur is open cluster NGC 2281. ! SEEN IT 3. Leaping Minnow

A little more than 4° east of Hassaleh (Iota (f) Aurigae), there is a little group of 5th magnitude stars that includes 14, 16, 17 and 19 Aurigae. With your 10x50 binoculars you should be able to reveal that this group of stars forms the shape of a fish. To the northeast of the Minnow you will see the ‘Splash’, which includes mag. +5.0 Phi (q) Aurigae. If you include the splash, you should see at least 30 stars. ! SEEN IT

4. A trio of clusters

Put Phi (q) Aurigae to the right of centre of the field of view and you should see two fuzzy patches, one above and one below the centre. The upper, slightly larger and fainter one is the Starfish Cluster, M38. The other is M36. Now put M36 near the top right of the field and M37, a larger and brighter fuzzy patch, will be visible near the bottom of the field of view. ! SEEN IT 5. The Crab Nebula, M1

You’ll need a dark, transparent sky to see this remnant of SN1054. On 28 August 1758, Charles Messier was seeking the first predicted return of Halley’s Comet, when he found a comet-like misty patch 1.1° northwest of Zeta (c) Tauri. It hadn’t moved a week later, so he knew it wasn’t a comet. M1 became first in his list of objects that may deceive comet hunters. ! SEEN IT

6. The California Nebula, NGC 1499

If the sky is good enough for M1 then mount your binoculars. Place mag. +4.0 Menkib (Xi (j) Persei) mid-way between the centre and the western edge of the field of view. Use averted vision, periodically tap your binoculars, and look for a variation in sky-brightness, with the elongated brighter patch crossing the central half of the field of view. This is the California Nebula. ! SEEN IT

" Tick the box when you’ve seen each one