2000-07-23 8:00pm AEST
Conditions: clear sky, no wind
Equipment:
- Pentax 16×50 PCF III binoculars
- Vanguard video camera tripod
- Had some friends around for dinner and the boys decided to have a peek at the sky from my rear deck.
I had boned up a bit on what to expect in the sky using Starry Night Backyard. As Scorpius was at the zenith, we had plenty to look at in the vicinity.
I moved down in a line through Sco Lambda and Upsilon to easily find M7 (Ptolemy’s Cluster). It helped that it was visible with the naked eye. From there it was a quick pan to the left and up to find slightly dimmer M6 (Butterfly Cluster).
The next objects were M8 (Lagoon Nebula), M20 (Trifid nebula) and M21 in Sagittarius. These all fit comfortably in the 3.1° field of view of my binoculars. Although I knew it was there, we could not discern M21 as an object without using a lot of imagination. M8 and M20 on the other hand, were quite nice fuzzy gray smudges. While I was looking a satellite zoomed across the FOV from left to right.
The next targets were M17 (Omega nebula) and M18 in Sagittarius. These were both clearly visible fuzzy gray smudges.
Last target of the evening was M16 (Eagle nebula) in Serpens Cauda. Another fine fuzzy gray smudge. That finished us for the evening, and with a haul of seven Messier objects on my first serious look, I’m looking forward to more clear skies!
