Listed in P. J. Melotte's (1880-1961) catalog of deep sky objects as #111 is this open cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices, prosaically named the Coma star cluster. Noted by neither Messier nor the New General Catalog, this group of about 40 stars is reasonably close to us, galactically speaking, at only 288 light-years, and has only recently been verified as motion-related and therefore a genuine cluster. Originally thought of as "Leo's tail," the third century B. C. astronomer Ptolemy III renamed it in honor of the Egyptian queen Berenice II, and the legendary sacrifice of her hair.

Messier 44: this swarm of stars, called the "Beehive" star cluster, buzzes at a safe distance of 500 light-years away. The cluster is comprised of 200-350 stars towards the constellation of Cancer. Like the Pleiades, this is another conspicuous object in the sky that was known to most ancient cultures. Galileo was the first to resolve the cluster into stars using his small telescope -- an instrument markedly inferior to the binoculars you used this evening. Before telescopic aid, ancient mariners would use the appearance of the Beehive as a way to monitor the weather at night. If the cluster could not be seen, there would be moisture or thin clouds on their way in.

Known popularly as The Whirlpool Galaxy, Messier 51 (NGC 5194) is, in fact, two galaxies interacting with each other. (Computer models suggest the smaller galaxy, NGC 5195, passed near M51 (NGC 5194) some 70 million years ago; eventually, in one to two billion years, the models suggest a final merger.) M51 was the first spiral structure ever observed, by Lord Rosse in 1845 through his 6-foot reflector in Parsonstown, Ireland. At the time, the true nature of galaxies was unknown but the recognizable spiral structure was indisputable. 37 million light-years distant, The Whirlpool is a showpiece of the night sky with two distinct arms, star-forming regions and intricate dust lanes. It is one of the major highlights in the little-known constellation of Canes Venatici, The Hunting Dogs.

Among the loveliest objects in the sky, a binary star system (two stars that are physically close and gravitationally bound to each other) with distinctly different colored stars, such as Iota Cancri (in the constellation Cancer) and Albireo (the "head" of Cygnus the Swan), can dazzle the eye with their beauty. Albireo's brighter amber/yellow star is actually a binary itself, while its blue/green companion seems to be solitary. It's not even known if the two major stars are gravitationally related to each other; if they are, a complete orbit would take over 100,000 years. Other yellow/blue binary systems often shown in the program include Izar (in Bootes) and Cor Caroli (Alpha Canum Venaticorum).

Finding a star or planet through a telescope while it's still daylight used to be tricky and highly dependent on luck, but it has been rendered a "piece o' cake" with go-to telescopes and the software that directs them. Still, it is a thrill to see Sirius (in Canis Major), Regulus (in Leo), or Arcturus (in Bootes), or any of the other bright stars while our closest star (the Sun) is still flooding the sky with its light. Somehow one doesn't think of the stars being "there" during the daytime, but they certainly are, and a good telescope will show them to you: brilliant points of light against a dazzlingly blue sky.

When William Herschel discovered this planetary nebula in 1785, he thought it resembled the planet Jupiter, so NGC 3242 has become known as The Ghost of Jupiter or Jupiter's Ghost. However, Herschel was looking through a relatively poor telescope, and viewing this object today, through the 24" RC, shows that it really looks nothing like our solar system's gas giant: NGC 3242 has a definite blue/green color, more like Uranus or Neptune, a bright central star, and rings and oblongs of oxygen irradiated by its star then reradiated as visible light. 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Hydra, The Ghost of Jupiter is one of the sky's brightest planetary nebula.

The second planet out from the Sun, Venus is also the second brightest object in our night sky (only the Moon is brighter), but it has an atmosphere "gone bad." It is so hot, dense, caustic, and potentially destructive to anything we recognize as life, and the objects we humans create, that it defied all our attempts to learn about its surface until we could orbit a radar-mapping satellite, Magellan, in the early 1990s. Now we know its surface shows signs of volcanic activity (possibly recent, geologically speaking), and cratering due to impacts. Since it orbits the Sun closer than we do, its highest point in our evening or morning twilight is no more than 47 degrees; it never crosses the night sky.

The sixth planet, counted outward from the Sun, in our solar system, Saturn is fondly known as The Lord of the Rings. Its ring system is wider, finer and more complex than we ever imagined until Voyager I & II provided their stunning views, updated constantly now by the highly successful Cassini mission. Saturn is a gas giant planet which shows us only its cloud tops of muted ochres, buffs, light oranges and yellows, with only a rare storm system to interrupt its bands. With the number of moons orbiting Saturn standing at 61, so far, many of them herding entire rings or arcs of rings, Saturn continues to captivate and humble us.

Our closest star, the Sun, along with every other visible object in the sky, was once thought to circle the Earth, since most observations supported this hypothesis. However, over centuries, scientists dissatisfied with discrepancies in the orbits of the known planets discovered step by step that the Earth was simply a member of the group of planets and other objects which orbit the Sun. At almost 93 million miles away (one Astronomical Unit, or AU), the Sun, a "main sequence" star, provides the energy, in the form of sunlight, which supports the majority of life on Earth. Through the process of nuclear fusion, the Sun constantly converts hydrogen to helium and other elements. It has been doing this for approximately 4.5 billion years and will continue to do so for another 5+ billion years.

Found in the constellation Serpens Caput (the head of the serpent that Ophiuchus strangled), the magnificent globular cluster Messier 5 is one of the oldest known, with its age estimated at 13 billion years. As opposed to most other globular clusters which appear spherical, M5 shows a distince ellipticity. At a distance of 24,500 light-years and 165 light-years across, this is one of the largest globulars to grace our skies.

This open cluster in Gemini, the Twins, is in close proximity to the open cluster NGC 2158, but it's an optical illusion: Messier 35 is only 2,700 light-years away while NGC 2158 is over 15,000. Relatively young at perhaps only 70 million years, it contains many blue and white massive stars, scattered evenly over an area of sky the size of the full Moon. M35 hosts 120 stars brighter than 13th magnitude, and, under excellent seeing conditions, is visible to the naked eye near "the feet of the twins."

Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos                   Satellites:       http://www.heavens-above.com
Lynch and Livingston, Color and Light in Nature          Weather imagery:  http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/satellite/
Peterson Field Guide to the Stars and Planets            Clear Sky Chart:  http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/
Michael Bakich:  The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Amateur Astronomy