Astronomy binocular jewel

On a cold, clear Saturday night in January, most folks are home by the fireplace or out painting the town red, so to speak. This last Saturday night, for me, meant some astronomy, since the sky did clear. I didn’t stay out long, with the temperature down around ten above, but I did stay out long enough to enjoy one of my favorite objects in an astronomical binocular and that is the Pleiades, sometimes known as the Seven Sisters, but also well known to astronomers by the designation M45. For those of you who don’t know, the Pleiades is a bright knot of stars easily visible to the eye, even in a light polluted urban area. In other words, this bright open cluster of stars is anything but elusive – it’s one of the easiest objects to find in the sky with binoculars or telescopes using low power.

The Pleiades star cluster is named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygete, Celaeno, and Alcyone, along with their parents Atlas and Pleione. Each of these figures is represented by a bright star in the star cluster, though you will need some optical aid to actually separate them. The good news is that any binocular will do that – you don’t even need an astronomy binocular – and a binocular is the best tool for seeing the whole star cluster in a single view. If you are using a telescope, it is critical to use as low a magnification as you can get. Otherwise you will only see a small, but magnified section of the cluster.

So why bother to go out on a frigid, cold winter night with a binocular to see this astronomical jewel? That’s the reason in a nutshell – the Pleiades is a breathtaking jewel of beautiful blue-white stars that will give any handful of diamonds a run for the money. One of the reasons they are so bright and intense is that they are relatively close and the other is that they are relatively young and very hot. To make it even more fun, find a star atlas or star map and learn to identify those brightest stars by their names. It will help you make a personal connection with the night sky that will reward you each time you venture out with your binocular on those fall and winter nights.

Just remember to dress warm