NGC 6871Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet On a dark summer night, the Milky Way itself is a magnificent deep-sky object for the naked eye observer. The subtle glow of the star clouds and nebulae offers an intriguing sight. One of the brighter clouds, visible from my latitude, is the Cygnus Star Cloud. The … Continue reading Disrupting the Cygnus Star Cloud
NGC 6940 Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet My first encounter with NGC 6940 was one of pure coincidence. I was sweeping with the binoculars along the rich Milky Way star clouds of Cygnus without any preparation. While trying to find the location of the Cirrus nebula, I stumbled upon an oval brightening in … Continue reading Binocular Treasure in Vulpecula
M6 – The Butterfly Cluster Sketch and details by Rony De Laet One of the binocular highlights of Scorpius is M6, the Butterfly Cluster. This bright open cluster forms a splendid duo with M7. These two bright – naked eye – clusters were known since antiquity. While they can be squeezed in a single field … Continue reading Sting Like a Butterfly
M39 and NGC 7082Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet The brightest open cluster of Cygnus is Messier 39. With a diameter of more than a full moon, M39 is a beautiful binocular object. To find this open cluster, just drawn an imaginary line from Deneb (Alpha Cygni) to Alpha Lacerta and point your binoculars … Continue reading Line of Sight Neighbors
The Veil Nebula, NGC 6992 Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet The Veil Nebula The Veil Nebula in Cygnus can be a tricky object to observe, especially without an OIII filter. This supernova remnant is a delicate complex of faint light that encompasses a 3° field. Starting point for this observation is Epsilon Cygni. … Continue reading Gossamer Stellar Ghost
Bernard 168 Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet Barnard 168 The European midsummer nights are not the most favourable nights to go deep-sky hunting. The twilight lasts for the whole night. I had planned to give my attention to some bright galactic clusters. The more delicate objects like faint nebulae should have to wait … Continue reading Seeing Darkness
The Coathanger Asterism, Collinder 399 Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet Binocular Icon 21 : The Coathanger. One of the highlights of a summer binocular tour of the heavens is Collinder 399. It is a loose group of stars, which is visible to the naked eye. The first written observations of this cluster go … Continue reading Coathanger for the Cloak of Night
M13 Sketch and Details by Rony De Laet The Great Globular in Hercules. One of the finest globular clusters for northern hemisphere observers is undoubtedly M13 in Hercules. With a magnitude of 5.8, the cluster is a naked eye object under mag 6 skies. The cluster is also an easy to find object, even for … Continue reading M13 by way of Binoculars
ScorpiusSketch and Details by Ron De Laet Last night, I drove to a dark site with a clear view to the horizon. The nelm sunk below mag 6. M13 and M5 were visible with the naked eye. I made several sketches with the binoculars. Finally the constellation of the Scorpion caught my attention. I could … Continue reading A Scorpion on the Horizon
M35Sketch and Commentary by Rony De Laet While Gemini is far past its optimum appearance in the sky, the view of M35 is still very exciting in a pair of binoculars. The open cluster M35 was probably discovered in 1745 by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux. In 1764 Charles Messier added the object in his famous … Continue reading A Wide Look at M35
