For those of you who were planning to get up at 5AM and do a bit of astronomy before breakfast, but "accidentally" forgot, never fear, Joanie is here! I ventured out onto the frosty lawn in my bare feet and nightgown,
binocular around my neck, just to bring you my early
morning binocular astronomy report. Here's what you missed.
Venus is an area of faint stars and, as such, shines all the more like the brilliant beacon it is. It is absolutely gorgeous and well worth getting up early to see. Mars is next and is currently surrounded by lovely
stars in Gemini, but still outshines them all. In my
Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe, it appeared as a small, but intensely orange disc. Saturn is back to the east a bit and is doing its thing in Leo. In my
binocular at 10x, I couldn't see the rings, but I could detect an ever so slight bulge to the tiny disc. My last stop was in the neighborhood of Auriga for some open star clusters. M35 on the border of Gemini, then M37 and M36 in Auriga were quite easy, even with all the light pollution. M38, though, escaped as usual. That one usually requires a trip to the park for a darker sky and … well, I just wasn't dressed for it. Besides, the aroma of my coffee beckoned. Stay tuned, though, for more reports from the binocular lady.