Mesmerized by Skies

12 Jan 2021 Share on:

I always wanted a telescope and start foraging through the skies. Recently, this urge to get a telescope increased and I got a cheap refractor from Best Buy, which I received broken and had to return. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift for my son. But it was not meant to be (good riddance! We got him something else).

After reading through blogs and articles online, I realized whatever happened, happened for good. After lots of recommendations from so many experienced amateur astronomers, I ordered Orion Classic Dobsonian XT8. The catch was it was back-ordered ¹.

Again after reading recommendations online, specially from Ed Ting, I ordered a Celestron Cometron 7x50 binoculars. It arrived Sunday and yesterday was clear night. So, I spent some time looking at the stars. I first looked at the Orion Constellation. It was easy to identify and locate with three bright stars lined to make Orion’s belt. Those three stars are beautiful to look at and I kept staring them for half an hour. The most mesmerizing part of the night was observing a bright star cluster. My wife found a group of stars, which with naked eyes and due to light pollution, was difficult to locate but through binoculars, it was just, no words to descibe it and lack thereof, was mesmerizing and due to which I think now I am hooked. We did not know the name of it and had to do research after words. It was Pleiades, which is also known as Messier 45 (M45), named after the list created by Charles Messier. In Hindu Astronomy and Astrology, this is known as Krittika Nakshatra.

I wanted to see Orion Nebula as I had heard a lot of chatter on Reddit about it. So, I took the binoculars and started exploring the sky specially Orion constellation and was able to see it. It was not as clear as you see in the pictures but you could definitely see and locate it.

Today, again, I went out to explore before it became cloudy and spent time the beauty of all the stars, specially PLeiadas and Orion belt and nebula.

I am mesmerized. You do not need to know the names of the stars to admire them. You can call them anything you want. They remain as beautiful and as Shakespeare said “What is in name?”

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