My latest edition is attached. It sure would be nice to be able to see
some of these things myself. Oh well, it can't be cloudy and/or hazy
forever. What is amazing is that my region (upstate New York) has been
having a fairly sever drought.
Tony
Twelve Month Tour of the Messier Catalog
July Messier Objects
This will be a light month as we wait for the summer Milkyway to rise into
better view later this summer. Our quarry will consist of six globular
clusters and one very bright galaxy. All of these objects are possible
with binoculars, most are down right easy even with small binoculars.
This globular cluster in Canes Venatici is one of the brightest objects
in the sky. In binoculars this object is definately not star like, but more
of a bright, small snowball easy to see. Small telescopes will begin to
resolve M3 into individual stars. The hardest part of this object is
locating it in a portion of sky that contains few bright landmarks.
Another globular cluster in Canes Venatici. While not quite as big
or bright as M3 it is still an obvious binocular object. Resolvable in
small telescopes, it as easy object to find sharing the same low power
telescope field as fifth magnitude Alpha Coma Berenices.
A big, bright globular cluster located in Serpens Caput. M5 is as
nice as M3 but lies near a fifth magnitude naked eye star (5 Serpentis)
making it an easy object to find.
An eighth magnitude globular cluster in Hydra, M68 is a difficult
binocular object for Northern observers. It appears as a faint fuzz
spot in binoculars, you may need to use averted vision or large binoculars
to find this one. Appearing as a round fuzzy patch in a 8" telescope, you
will need a much larger aperature to really resolve it.
A face on spiral in Hydra. M83 is fairly easy in binoculars as a
faint, fuzzy patch of light. In a telescope look for a large patch of
light with a bright center.
A big bright globular in Scorpius, easily located near Antares.
This is an easy binocular object appearing as a round snowball.
Partially resolvable in a telescope, the trade mark of this globular
is a line of bright stars crossing the center.
This is the smallest and faintest globular cluster this month.
Located in Scopius, M80 is a very tough binocular object appearing as
a faint star with slight fuzziness around the edges. This is confirmed
with a telescope, M80 has a bright central condensation in the middle of
faint fuzz. It is one of the Messier objects that even through a medium
telescope still looks like a comet.
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