Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - 54

RON BRECHER
SEPTEMBER 2021 OBSERVING
Suburban Stargazer by Ken Hewitt-White
Submerged in Aquarius
At the confluence of two watery constellations are targets
both decent and difficult.
E
arly September, nightfall. I'm in my
yard inspecting a 12° by 5° stretch
of the zodiac, running from northwestern
Capricornus eastward into
Aquarius. The field includes a naked-eye
double star to test my aging eyesight,
a dim globular cluster to challenge
my best telescope, a mystery Messier
to satisfy my curiosity, and a lustrous
planetary nebula to stoke my wonder.
Altogether, a tidy collection for primetime
viewing.
But I don't like it.
My complaint (thanks for asking!)
is urban light pollution. I live on the
north side of a small Canadian burgh
(pop. 91,000) that, in terms of outdoor
54 SEPTEMBER 2021 * SKY & TELESCOPE
lighting, thinks it's Chicago or New
York. Gazing southward, I behold not
the astral forms of Capricornus and
Aquarius but a sky-wide photon bomb.
The Sea Goat (Capricornus) and the
Water Bearer (Aquarius) are drowning
in an ocean of artificial light. But the
situation isn't as hopeless as it might
first seem. Time to set up some scopes
and give it a try.
Sea Goat Doubles
Capricornus is one unusual critter. Part
fish and part goat, this ad hoc hybrid
certainly adds variety to the 12-member
zodiac. Alas, the fishtailed ruminant
has no allure in my bleak sky. The conMESSIER'S
72ND NON-COMET French
comet hunter Charles Messier observed this
small, dim globular cluster - later named
M72 - in early October 1780, a month after
his colleague Pierre Méchain discovered the
object. M72 is about 55,000 light-years away,
making it one of the most distant globulars in
the Messier catalog.
stellation offers only a weak, vaguely
wedgelike star pattern. I can't fully
trace it out even with the help of Jupiter
and Saturn, which currently serve as
navigational beacons to the area. But
at the western end of the wedge, two
medium-bright stars, slanted a couple of
degrees apart, shine heroically through
the murk. My tour begins there.
The lower of the two twinklers is
3.2-magnitude Beta (β) Capricorni.
My 4-inch (102-mm) f/6.5 achromatic
refractor working at 20× shows that yellowy
Beta is accompanied by a 6.1-magnitude
star almost 4′ to the west, an
8.6-magnitude star roughly 12′ north

Sky & Telescope - September 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - September 2021

Contents
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - Cover1
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - Cover2
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - 1
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - Contents
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - 3
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - 4
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - 5
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - 6
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - 7
Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - 8
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Sky & Telescope - September 2021 - Cover3
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