Sky.and.Telescope_

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Gary Seronik

Binocular Highlight

SkyandTelescope.com August 2014 45

55 6774

SAGITTARIUS

Teaspoon

54

σ

5 °^ binocular (^) vi
ew
A Teaspoon of Sky Sugar
In his Ramblings column for the August 1973 issue
of this magazine, George Lovi presented the constel-
lation Sagittarius in a way that has always stayed with
me. The main grouping of stars form the familiar
Teapot, depicted approaching the meridian on our all-
sky map at left. Below the Teapot lies Corona Australis,
which Lovi reimagined as a slice of lemon. And Lovi
showed how to form a Teaspoon from the four bright-
est stars of northeastern Sagittarius.
The Teapot and the bright mist of Milky Way
“steam” rising from its spout are so rich with deep-sky
treasures (including a baker’s dozen Messier objects),
that it’s little wonder that the rest of the constellation
is often overlooked. The Teaspoon, for example, holds
two nice but seldom observed binocular sights. The
more striking one is the open cluster NGC 6774. The
grouping, oddly, is not plotted in the Pocket Sky Atlas,
even though it’s an easy catch in my 10×30 image-
stabilized binos. The cluster stars are arranged in a
ragged V with the eastern side forming a conspicuous
curve. The greatest concentration of starlight is found
where the two halves of the V meet. I can pick out
roughly a dozen stars there.
While NGC 6774 is fairly easy in binos, our next
target is more of challenge. Double star 54 Sagittarii
lies off the end of the teaspoon’s handle and forms a
very wide, equal-brightness pairing with 55 Sagittarii.
But the real catch is 54 itself. Although challenging, I
can split the star in two with my 15×45 image-stabilized
binoculars. The components are far enough apart (45′′)
to be resolved at binocular magnifi cations, but are of
disparate brightnesses — magnitudes 5.4 and 7.6 —
which makes it diffi cult to tease the companion from
the primary’s glare. Indeed, I had no luck splitting 54 in
my 10×30s. ✦
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  Moon
  Aug 3
  When
  Late June 1 a.m.
  Early July Midnight
  Late July 11 p.m.
  Early Aug. 10 p.m.
  Late Aug. Nightfall
  *Daylight-saving time.