M44
Although
it lies in a barren part of the sky, at mag 3.1 this cluster is
bright enough to be quite easily seen naked-eye from a dark-sky. If
your sky isn't so dark, try scanning along an imaginary line from
Regulus in Leo to Pollux in Gemini and look for a triangular shaped
group of a dozen or so stars.
Coma
Berenices
This
rather large group of stars lies between Leo and Bootes. It's made
up of several chains of mag 5-6 stars that are said to be the amber
tresses of Queen Berenice's hair, offered to the god Aphrodite for
the safe return of her beloved king from battle.
M81
The
spring sky is full of galaxies, a few of them are bright enough to
be seen in binoculars. To find M81, first locate Gamma and Alpha
Ursa Major, the two of the stars that make up the bowl of the Big
Dipper. Now follow an imaginary line connecting the two as far as
they are apart. You should see a faint smudge in your binoculars.
This is probably the toughest object in the list to find and so
you'll need to be under a dark sky. Then, make sure the moon has
already set and that Ursa Major is up high near the zenith.
Persistence and a good chart should do the rest.
M3
Although
this globular cluster is in reality made up of a half-million stars,
in binoculars it appears as little more than a fuzzy star located
about half way between Canes Venatici and Arcturus, the bright
yellow star in Bootes.
Mu Booti
This
a double star that is easily split in binoculars. It's located at
the top of Bootes just above Delta.
M13
This
is the most well-know globular cluster in the northern hemisphere.
Like M3, it contains hundreds of thousands of stars. Binoculars only
hint at the majesty of this object. Look for an out-of-focus star
below Eta, one of the keystone stars in Hercules. Note the two 7th
magnitude stars lying on either side.
Nu Draconis
This
is another easy double to split in binoculars. The 4 stars that make
up the head of Draco lie just above Hercules. Nu is the faintest of
the four. Now take the chart and try tracing out the rest of the
constellation.
Alpha Libra
Libra
is a little diamond shaped constellation located south of Bootes.
Alpha is the brightest and westernmost star and is an easy double to
split in binoculars.
M5
A
globular that's not as well know as M13 but that is every bit as big
and bright. Look about 2 1/2 fields north of Beta Librae the top
most star in Libra and what looks like a fuzzy star should be
visible in your binoculars, hiding amongst the stars of neighbouring
Serpens.
Introduction
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