Who Does the Dusting Around Here?
Tonight at midnight, the nebulae rule the skies. Two very bright, large clouds of gas and dust will be an easy find nearly due south at this time all this week. These are the Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid nebula. Near these colorful clouds lies an open cluster; a rich family of companion stars, huddled together in the near vacuum of space. Its name is M21. All of these objects are just barely too dim to see with the unaided eye, but are an easy find with only a pair of binoculars, although the view using a telescope will be brighter, larger and more detailed. Perhaps, long ago, in the days before streetlights, city lights and billboards, our ancestors may have been able to view these fantastic objects without optical aid. What legends, dreams and myths may have been conjured in an effort to explain their strange appearance is now long clouded by the mists of time! We begin our journey across the light years at M8. It is also known by the names of NGC 6528, and, more descriptively, the L
