The forecast was very promising for excellent seeing and transparency, but heat and humidity made the reality a little hazier. Still, with the exception of some early thin cloud cover, the skies were good. Tonight I was viewing with the Oberwerk 20x80 binoculars, working on the Binocular Messier Club list of the Astronomical League. While I had hopes of catching some of the galaxies in the Coma Berenices they turned out to be too low in the sky for tonight's conditions, so instead I concentrated on Ursa Major.

First order of business was to take a gander at Saturn whose rings are still at a very shallow tilt, though not absolutely edge-on as they were in March. In the binoculars, Saturn is tiny but clear. I can see the rings clearly and there was one moon out to the side.

So, on to the Messier objects. First up was M51 right out by the end of the Big Dipper's handle (Alkaid). This galaxy was pretty easy to locate and didn't look like much in the binoculars. At this point the clouds were just beginning to dissipate but there was just enough haziness that M51 tended to blend into the background. A bit of relaxing and averted vision did the trick, though. Next, a short hop Southwards where M94 is about halfway between, and just to the side of, the path between the two stars that make up Canis Venatici. No real detail was visible, but it was certainly clearer than M51. Next I moved down toward the body of Ursa Major, viewing M106 and then M109.

At this point I took a break to view the Iridium flares that some of the other guys were excited about. I'd never seen one of these events, which occurs when the sun reflects off of the large antenna of an Iridium communications satellite, causing the satellite to brighten significantly for a few seconds. We saw the first one at about 11:15pm and then the second about 4 minutes later. Then, a few minutes later, we saw an unexpected third satellite pass over in the same path.

I continued my search in the body of the great bear, locating M108 with a good bit of difficulty. This galaxy is edge-on and obscured by a good bit of dust. It was a short hairline in the binoculars and I wouldn't believe I was seeing it until I got a look through one of the telescopes. Then I found the galaxies M81 and M82 just above the bear's tail toward Polaris. After this I spent a bit of time looking at some other objects and generally browsing about rich star fields. In the end it was a good night, with good company.

Astronomical League Binocular Messier Club

Iridium Flare on Wikipedia