Stargazing with binoculars.

After endless cloudy nights, including disappointingly for the flyby of asteroid DA-14, the clouds parted at midnight last night. Too late to get the telescope out, but perfect for a few minutes with binoculars. Try and look for the following two objects and you will discover the magic of binocular stargazing!

At midnight in February (earlier in March and April), Gemini and Cancer are reasonably high to the south west.  Gemini is marked out by the bright ‘heads’ of the twins, Pollux and Castor, about half way between the horizon and directly overhead.  Alas there are two other similar pairs of stars in a similar direction in Auriga and Canis Minor, but a basic star chart or planisphere will help here.   Cancer is very hard to spot.  I hereby rename it ‘the invisible’ constellation! It sits to the left of Gemini. BBC Stargazing has good sets quarterly charts, looking in each direction, for early and late evening.

Cancer contains an excellent binocular sight, the M44 Praesepe, or ‘beehive’,  open star cluster.  On a good night (as it was last night) you may just see this as a faint haze out the corner of your eye when you look to the left of Gemini, that disappears when you look straight at it.  In binoculars a large trapezium shaped cluster magically appears, filling the binocular view, like a swarm of bees around a hive.

Gemini contains another, much more challenging open cluster, M35. From urban/suburban skies at least you will not see this with the naked eye.  Starting at the ‘head’ of the upper twin, follow the line of 4 bright stars to the right, moving towards the ‘foot’. Direct the binoculars to the foot. Turning slightly more than a right angle upwards you will quickly come to a very faint misty patch – this is the cluster!  A small telescope will resolve the misty patch further into individual stars.