Settling down for some summer viewing

I am starting to get the itch. With the evening temperatures warming it makes staying outside longer in the evening a distinct possibility. The itch to grab the binoculars and head out for an evening of viewing is really getting strong. Especially now that the Milky Way is coming into position for some optimum viewing.

Find a nice dark place, take a comfortable reclining chair, perhaps even a pillow for your neck and your binoculars and get ready for a great evening of viewing. It may be early in the season, but a good insect repellent may come in handy.

Start at about 9 p.m. local time. Look to the east for the Summer Triangle, Vega, the brightest star in Lyra the Harp, it will be the highest of the three. Next look left for Deneb, the tail star in Cygnus the Swan then to the right for Altair in Aquila the Eagle. The three will be the brightest stars in the area.

Start with Deneb. Swing your binoculars down, toward the northeast, about three degrees. On average, the field of view for a pair of binoculars is about five degrees. Look for a bright shape called the North American Nebula. You will be able to tell from its shape why it is called that. It is almost a perfect outline of the North American continent, Florida, Mexico and all.

In astronomy books and magazines, photographs of this nebula are red, but you won't see it that way, it will be an almost colorless gray blob. It has to do with the fact that the human eye cannot pick up color that way. Only long period photographs can get the red color.

That is also why almost everything the amateur astronomer sees in binoculars and telescopes is the gray, fuzzy blob. But that will not deter them from looking. It is the joy of the hunt and the find that sends us out into the night.

Next, slowly traverse the length of Cygnus, all the way down to the tip of the nose, or beak if you will. That is Albireo, a double star. You probably won't be able to separate them with the binoculars, it will take a telescope for that. If you could, you would see that one of the pair is blue and the other is yellow.

On the way down, look for other faint fuzzies. There is M29, a nice, compact star cluster near where the lines marking the length and breadth of Cygnus meet. There is also all the brightness of the Milky Way, the edge of our home galaxy. Also look for the dark places. There are several large dark dust clouds that block light from any stars in the background, almost like holes in the fabric of the the galaxy.

Just above Albireo is another faint fuzzy, M56, another small star cluster. Although it night be a little too hard for binoculars to resolve, you can always try.

Albireo is the jumping off place for the next scan. Draw a line from Albireo down to the right to Altair in Aquila. About halfway along that line and a little above is a marvelous little asterism, Brocchi's Cluster. It will be instantly recognized by its other name, the Coathanger. It is a great sight in binoculars. It is in a rather nondescript constellation, Vulpecula, the Fox which consists of just three stars. Just below the Coathanger is another small constellation, Sagitta, the Arrow. You will recognize it by its shape, yep, you guessed it, an arrow.

I guess I will need to save the rest of the trip for next week. Perhaps we will get the almost nightly thunderstorms out of the way to get in some descent viewing.

SKY WATCH: Hope you caught the close pairing of Mars and Regulus on Monday. Keep watching as Mars moves in with Saturn on July 10. Look also on the 6th when a very slender crescent moon will join Mars, Saturn and Regulus. A great binocular sight.

NEXT TIME: More astronomical blathering, and the rest of the Milky Way.