 | It was a fairly good night for observing with the Northwest Georgia Astronomical Association even though the transparency was not so great and the occasional wispy band of cloud drifted out of the West. On this night I was using the Oberwerk 20x80 binoculars. I observed 8 more objects on the Astroleague's Binocular Messier Club list, admired the Pleiades and the Perseus Double Cluster, casually swept the star fields of the Milky Way and got my first look at Comet 17p Holmes. |
The Comet was a pretty impressive sight in the binoculars. I've simulated the view using a screenshot of my FOV from Starry Night and creating a representation of the comet in Photoshop. The comet was visible to the naked eye as a large fuzzy just below the star Mirfak in Perseus. It filled about 25% of the FOV of the binoculars and had a fairly clear brighter core a bit off-center. I could make out a bit of elongation, but nothing like a tail.
On the Messier List I got a look at these:
- M29 - A small cluster, but sharp and clear. Looked a bit like a butterfly or moth
- M56 - Small and very diffuse, I could not resolve the stars at the center of the cluster, but could make out some detail at the edges
- M27 Dumbbell Nebula - Not hard to locate, but hard to really see. No trace of the dumbbell shape with the binocs
- M71 - Another small globular cluster, but the core resolved reasonably well
- M31 Andromeda Galaxy - Very large, of course, but not so clear due to light pollution in the East. More or less a long oval light patch with a brighter core
- M32 & M110 Satellite Galaxies to M31 - Visible in the same FOV with Andromeda, but very faint
- M33 Triangulum Galaxy - Fairly large but faint. I could not make out the arms
