I've been challenging myself lately to find some famous binocular astronomy objects, not because I don't know them (I can see them in my sleep), but because I need a challenge now and then. How could something like M27 in Vulpecula be a challenge with binoculars, you say? Well, if you live in a light polluted location like the northwest suburbs of Chicago, even seeing a 3rd magnitude star with the naked eye is a challenge. Seeing a magnitude 7 object like M27 from a brightly lit apartment complex is therefore a worthy challenge.
Last night, we had a night of excellent transparency and M27 was also ideally placed, nearly directly overhead. I know because my upstairs neighbor's deck kept getting in the way. Since I just happened to have checked out a
Nikon 8x32 Premier SE, I started scanning. At first, M27 escaped, but since I already knew what to look for, I finally spotted the small dim, fuzzy. Yeah! Oh, did I mention? Stars seen through the Nikon premier SE were as crisp and pinpoint as it gets. I love that binocular. What a sweetie!