April and May suburban skies lack bright bounty for binoculars because the Milky Way is mostly out of sight as we look upward out of the spiral disk of our galaxy, rather than into it as we do in winter and summer when it is high overhead. The Milky Way is the visible...
Hydra is the largest constellation in the night sky (1302.84 square degrees). It can be challenging for suburban observers in mid latitudes (like Kansas 😉) because its northern border is at 7 degrees of declination, well to the south, and neighboring houses and trees...
A misperception exists about the capability of 10x binocular to resolve closer double stars. The actual limit is much closer than often believed. The closest double star I have resolved with a 10x binocular is 100 Herculis, which has a separation of only 14.3...
The starfield around the star Wasat in the constellation Gemini (also named Delta Geminorum, 55 Gem, STF 1066) first attracted my notice years ago because of its marque denizen, the planetary nebula, NGC 2392 (the Eskimo Nebula) which is a fine object for high...
The most observed object in the constellation Gemini is the rich open cluster Messier 35. Its faint companion cluster, NGC 2159, is better known to the astronomical cognoscenti than more casual observers. The excellent double star Castor, STF 1110, and the planetary...
