A Glimpse of the Hunter

[iPeace]

The clouds were rolling in, so it would have to be a quick fix. Very quick. Beanie and Bins. Seeing was poor and getting worse, but it beats watching poo on the telly, if only for 20 minutes.

The Pleiades and Hyades never fail to entertain. But as I've been studying Orion lately, it was no time to linger; on to the Hunter.

At 15x, the constellation is an easy sweep. From the bottom up, Saiph is a star. Rigel is big and blue; no sign of a companion, nor with Tau.

The Sword is always great, as we all know but never tire of. The bright stars glow, albeit at this magnification a bit too close together to discern. Σ747 and Iota, the Trapezium in M42, 45 and 42 Ori in NGC 1977 and the Umbrella of NGC 1981.

Up towards the Belt, and Sigma actually shows one of its companions, not bad! Less so for the three belt stars themselves, but it's a fun area to gaze at, with the Giraffe standing with its tail towards Alnitak, bending over to graze on Alnilam.

Bellatrix has a very sharply-cut slice of pie to its upper right, and a miniature Cassiopeia below on the line down to Mintaka (near Psi). Remarkable how such things aren't noticeable in Stellarium until I've seen them in the sky.

Betelgeuze is big and red, and Cr 69 tops the main constellation with Meissa and the Phi Brothers.

By then, the clouds had reclaimed my sky. Much more to see, but all for another night.

 

[Les Ewan]

Its always a joy to flit to and fro between Rigel and Betelgeuse with bins and drink in the colour contrast between the two.Also worth while to do the same with Betelgeuse and Aldebaran.To me Betelgeuse is redder but I'm convinced at times it appears particularly red.