Cascades, glistening locks, and more galaxies

March 8, 2008 - T5, S1

It's been raining all day, but a cold font is blowing in now on strong winds, clearing the skies, so about 10:30 I picked up the 12X36IS binoculars for a quick peak - yep, it's worth more.

I'm tired, but clear skies can wake me up. Besides, there were some things I wanted to check on. I expect members of the Prime Time group to be able to find M81 and 82 in 15X70 binoculars, as well as M65 and M66. So I figured a good test of this assignment would be if I could find them in the smaller, less powerful 12X36 binoculars.

And I could. The key to locating M81 and M82 is the 4th magnitude star that marks the bear's ear. Get that in view and there's a little crowd around it and back in the general direction of the Pointer Stars are M81 and M82. Of the two, M82 is a bit more difficult, but really both are easy. M65 and M66 are more of a challenge, but both certainly viewable in the 12X36 glasses.

That out of the way, I spent some time with Coma Berenice. I've never studied this cluster. It's really quite charming. And I like the fact that it's named for a real historical person - no other constellation is. But Gary Seronik in his "Binocular Highlights" says you might be able to see NGC4565 in this vicinity. I don't think I could, but I'm not sure because I really find his chart too small for the task and therefore not as detailed as I would like. I have to say, that while Seronik's book is a good stimulus for quick peeks with binoculars, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of detailed instructions and effective charts. Well sometimes it doesn't - I just find it very uneven inthat respect.

This was the case when I went looking for Kemble's Cascade, a wonderful run of about a dozen stars in a nearly straight line. I've been there before with the 15X45IS glasses, but years ago. It's in the faint constellation of Camelopardalis and I found that what I really wanted was star-hopping directions from the bright stars of Perseus. So since these were not in the book, I made my own. They go something like this - go out to the last star in Perseus - the one nearest the double cluster and Cassiopeia. From here turn eastward toward Camelopardalis and look for a pair of stars.

Scan northward from these and you come to an arc of four bright stars and at the last of these is Kemble's Cascade - all much easier to do than write or read about. I'll get a chart out of Starry Nights and mark it up.

That said, I also looked at M51 - it showed better than the other morning - and at M101 - ditto - better than the other morning. Transparency must be a bit improved because my eyes certainly weren't very well dark adapted. I used Seronik's directions to find M94, another galaxy - and although my dark adaption is completely shot now, I think I'm going to step out once more and take a look for M106, yet still another galaxy in the spring collection. Both of these are up near the Bear in Canes Venatici - the hunting dogs.

Nope - too tired to wait for my night vision to return. Boy the wind was roaring through the trees tothe south like the proverbial freight train. Good music to go to bed by!