Check out these mid-winter binocular targets
The mid-winter night sky presents a treasure trove of targets well suited for viewing with binoculars. One of the most easily found is the Pleiades open star cluster. Nearly overhead at night fall, it is a group of several hundred sibling stars that formed from the same mother nebula. Their common origin makes the star cluster’s nickname ‘the seven sisters’ especially appropriate. At about 400 light years from us, the star light we see today began its journey about the time when Galileo made the first astronomical use of a telescope.
Shift your focus to the northwestern sky and catch a view of our celestial neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. In a pair of binoculars, the galaxy appears as an oval patch of light with a bright core. To one side, the core’s brightness diminishes gradually toward the edge of the galactic disc. On the other side, there is a more abrupt drop in brightness. This feature is created by dark nebulae which overlay the galactic disc and block light from the stars within.
If your skies are dark and clear enough, you might be able to detect one of the Andromeda galaxy’s satellites, the small elliptical galaxy designated M32. It will appear as a very small fuzzy patch of light directly south of the main galaxy’s core. While observing the Andromeda galaxy consider that because of its great distance, the light that we see from it is over 2.5 million years old!
Another wonderful binocular target is the Orion Nebula located within the constellation Orion. First, look for Orion’s unmistakable hourglass shape in the south. Next, find the diagonal chain of stars forming the belt of Orion. Then look below the belt and a bit east for a stacked line of stars known as the sword of Orion. Pan around the sword with the binoculars. The stars at the center of the sword are nested in a luminous glow. That is the nebula. A real powerhouse of star formation. One hundred million years ago, the area around the Pleiades would have looked similar, but the clouds of molecular hydrogen gas and dust that formed those stars has long since dissipated leaving behind the cluster we know today.
