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Dr Ski
9.3°N, 123.3°E
03/22/2020
04:40 am

Equipment Details:

Canon EOS M100
136mm, f1. 8
4s@ISO4000

Image Details:

Naval Ocean Surveillance Systems (spy satellites) orbit the Earth in pairs or triplets. Most are visible with the naked eye and they are fun to watch and wave to ✋. These systems have been in orbit for over 40 years (this pair was launched in 2012). I chose this pair to image because they were passing across
one of my favorite sections of sky to view with binoculars: the Dark Rift in the Summer Milky Way between Vega and Altair.
Sagitta and globular cluster M71 fit nicely in my 8x40 binoculars. M71 is a great cluster for small scopes. It's loosely packed and it's easy to resolve some of the individual stars at low power. Some say that Sagitta is Cupid's arrow.
Just 4° West of Sagitta is the very cool Coat Hanger asterism.
If you have a dark site and your eyes are dark-adapted you can see the dark nebulae snaking around this region with small binoculars.
And just to the North (left) of this view is double star Albireo and the Dumbbell Nebula, both of which can be seen with small binoculars.
So basically, this small section of sky is reason enough to invest in a good pair of glasses!
Note that (coincidentally) the NOSS satellites' orbit is aligned with the Galactic Plane.