The first question one might ask is what makes a star cluster super-sized? And the answer is easy – star clusters that are relatively close to us appear larger in the sky. The first of these three clusters is arguably the best known star cluster of all. It is the...
After a cold, cloudy, and schedule conflicted January and February, March got off to a good binocular astronomy start thanks to an invitation from Bill Barlow to join him for observing at Lewis-Young park in Louisburg, Kansas Friday, March 1, on a clear if somewhat...
December was not an ideal month for astronomy. It was mostly cloudy, and my next door neighbor’s Christmas Vacation style holiday lights are bright enough to cast shadows. 😆He is an awesome neighbor, though, very considerate about lights when I’m...
I have the book Searching for the Oldest Stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe written by professional astronomer Anna Frebel checked out from the library, and wondered if it might be possible to view an ancient star with binoculars from my yard. To my...
Noting that Leo Minor contains four SHY binary stars, I decided to seek out the other three after observing SHY 552 in my first adventure with very wide binaries and other comoving stellar companions. 😉 SHY 552 has a relatively cozy separation of 106.9 arc-seconds. My...
