Poking around Cygnus with Binoculars

Last night, after the Red Sox game, I headed out around 11pm to poke around in the sky some with my trusty Canon 15x50is binoculars. The Moon was about half full but the sky was very dark and clear.

I warmed up on some of my favorites, the Double Cluster and the Andromeda Galaxy. But they weren't why I was here tonight. I had my new Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas and I wanted to explore Cygnus, in particular, some of the bigger items in there.

First stop was the North America Nebula. I tried for quite some time. Arms aching, consulting the atlas and then the stars, back and forth. I could follow the star patterns to it, but I wasn't certain of what I was seeing. Oh, I could make out the "Gulf of Mexico" allright, but the rest seemed a bit indistinct. And to the north of it, it seem just as bright, grainy, but bright, and then a falloff. The nebula area was grainy, but the neigboring region was. This was why I was pretty sure I had seen the nebula.

But I was puzzled by seeing the object I was looking for right next to another object that wasn't on the charts. I wondered if it was a denser part of the Milky Way. (I was sort of right, see below.)

So I moved on, trying to see the Pelican Nebula, right next to it. Try as I might I couldn't see anything at all.

I then reached for the gold, the Veil Nebula. I meticulously followed the pointers to it. I find this difficult because the binoculars show more stars than the atlas does. But by going back and forth, again, from the atlas to the sky I could find the right patterns. There! I got it. Well, actually no. I was seeing something that was round like the Veil, but it was fuller, and althought large, it was too small. It would fit entirely inside the Veil. I was looking primarily for the 6992 and 6995 parts. The bright star in the 6960 part seem to dazzle me a bit so I didn't look there too much. I kept on finding that round thing, but it wasn't right. I can only think that it was the brain playing a trick on me, seeing sometihng it wanted to see.

Not wanting to go inside, I found and split Albireo, then slid down to Stock 1, a nice open cluster.

The next day, while googling what I had been looking for, I came across this great web site, Showcase of Digital Astrophotography by Jerry Lodriguss. I don't know if that URL will always be good, so I grabbe the photo and I'll reproduce it here. (Jerry, if you don't want this, just tell me and I'll take it down.)



You can see the North America Nebula as a red blob just above bright blue Deneb in the lower left. To its right you can see a defined bright area, marked by a dark area.

This dark area was marked on my atlas but I ignored it, it is a dark nebula known as Le Gentil 3. So the border of Le Gentil 3 was making me see that part of the Milky Way as distinct object.

So after tonight's Red Sox game, I went out again. The sky wasn't nearly as nice. It was about an hour earlier and Deneb was certainly at the zenith, so I fully reclined my lawn chair. Ahhh, that was a lot better. I wanted a bit, just poking about, looking around while my eyes dark adapted. And then I looked. The North American nebula was much harder to see, but the dark nebulas! Oh my, they are pretty interesting. There are many in that area. The Atlas marks them but I didn't go hunting for numbers, I just moved the binoculars around enjoying the abscence of light.

I had accomplished what I wanted to, but you know how it is, I didn't want to go back inside. So I figured I'd find M29, since it was right there next to Sadr. It was an easy find. The area is full of stars but the patterns are easy to follow, shoot, you just keep Sadr in the field of view and you're all set. The challenge is making sure you see M29, not something else.