Sky & Telescope - August 2021 - 43

M29

2
LYRA

17
CYGNUS
HD 180314
HD 181119
M56
2

Albireo
19
HD 180450
M57

HD 177808
Binocular Highlight by Mathew Wedel
Lost in Space
D
Zenith
o certain celestial objects bedevil you? You
know where they are, you go looking, and you
+20°
end up fl opping around uselessly before giving up
and rechecking your charts. One such object for me
is M56, a globular cluster in the constellation Lyra,
the Lyre. You'd think it would be an easy catch: The
cluster lies on a line between Sulafat, or Gamma (γ)
Lyrae, and Albireo, or Beta (β) Cygni, a little closer to
Albireo than to Sulafat. But I've wasted so much time
fumbling for it that I fi nally worked out a star-hop to
get me there quickly.
Just north of M56, fi nd a rectangle of 5th- and 6th0°
magnitude
stars, with the corners formed by 19 Lyrae,
HD 180450, HD 181119, and HD 180314. In the eastern
corner of the rectangle you'll see an equilateral
triangle of fainter stars, about 12′ on a side, which is
a nice asterism in its own right. Extend the line from
19 Lyrae to HD 180450 by another 25′ southeast and
you'll land on M56.
Okay, so how do you get to the rectangle? Gamma
η
-20°
Lyrae forms a squashed diamond with 17 Lyrae,
HD 177808, and 19 Lyrae. Alternatively, from Albireo
you can scan northwest past 2 Cygni and onward
an equal distance to land on HD 181119 at the rectangle's
eastern corner.
As for M56, at magnitude 8.3 it looks like a slightly
WHEN TO
8h
g Sou
USE THE MAP
Late June 1 a.m.*
Early July Midnight*
Late July 11 p.m.*
Early Aug 10 p.m.*
Late Aug Dusk
*Daylight-saving time
fuzzy star at any binocular magnifi cation. But we don't
observe globs with binoculars for their indescribable
beauty, but rather to savor their vast distances and
incredible ages - 33,000 light-years and 13.7 billion
years in the case of M56, whose light dates from the
Ice Age and whose stars were born not long after the
Big Bang. Now that's a view worth searching out.
 MATT WEDEL is afraid he'll have his astronomer
card yanked if people fi nd out how often he gets lost
up there. So far, he's always made it back.
sk yandtelescope.org * AUGUST 2021 43
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12h
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DRACO ξ
θ
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Thuban
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Little
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URSA
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VIRGO
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Spica
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CORONA
BOREALIS
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M3
COMA
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LEO
CANES
VENATICI
LEO
MINOR
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MAJOR
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M23
M8
M20
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M19
M6
M7
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M62
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M4
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π
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Mizar
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Big
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μ
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M82
M51
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