M4 Easy target for small telescopes

New telescope users often ask "what is there to look at?"  I usually answer this question by saying "look at the moon" or "over there is the planet....."  But after a while you want to look at something much further away.  Globular Clusters certainly fill this bill.

A very easy Globular Cluster to locate is M4 in the constellation Scorpius (see the image below).  M4 is not as famous as M13 in Hercules, but M4 has the advantage of being very close to a bright, easy to see star, namely Antares.

To locate M4, point your telescope (or binoculars if you happen to be under very dark skies) and begin tracking toward the west.  M4 is only about 1 1/2 degrees to the west of Antares.  Remember though, some telescopes invert the image so it may LOOK like you're going to the East.  When in doubt start moving the scope and trust your hands instead of your eyes.

I saw M4 first at a big star party not far from Laramie Wyoming.  It was actually visible to the naked eye (faint and fuzzy but still there) which made pointing the telescope easy.

Anyone else out there like hunting globulars?  Which is your favorite globular cluster in a telescope?

Image created by the author using Stellarium

Scorpius Crawls along the Southern Horizon in August

Constellations represent a wide variety of animals, tools, fictional characters and mythical monsters.  One of the most famous creatures is crawling along the southern horizon during the months of summer.  

The constellation Scorpius the Scorpion is easy to spot, being dominated by a number of bright stars; the brightest of which is the star Antares.  The word Antares means Rival of Mars, and it does indeed appear red-orange in color.  

Antares is a red supergiant star very near the end of its life cycle.  If antares were placed in our own solar system it would extend out to well beyond Mars.  

In addition to being easy to spot, Scorpius is chock full of interesting "deep sky" objects.  These include  nebulae, star clusters, and globular clusters.  

If  you happen to be observing under very dark skies you may see a faint band of light extending up and over to the northern horizon. This is the Milky Way, our home galaxy.  When we are looking toward the constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius (to the east of Scorpius) we are looking toward the center of our galaxy.

As August begins, go out after dark and look to the southern horizon for the giant scorpion; but hurry because as fall rolls around, Scorpius will crawl below the western horizon.

Image created by the author using Stellarium