Suddenly, the Swan!

A personal astronomical discovery

This post originally appeared on my author blog on September 15, 2015.

I’ve had very little time and energy for my astronomy hobby for the past two years or so. It used to be that I’d take the telescope out at least two or three times a week, weather permitting. I logged my observations, worked my way through the Messier catalog, reported my observations of variable stars to the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers), and tried to observe occultations of stars by asteroids for IOTA (the International Occultation Timing Association). I was never the most accomplished of observers, but I was out there doing things.

Life gets in the way, though, and I’m a bit older than I used to be. So time and energy are not what they once were. Enthusiasm has taken a bit of a hit, too, for several reasons. For one thing, I only have modest astronomical equipment, which limits what I can see. For another, I live eight miles from downtown Baltimore, and the light pollution is horrible. That’s an even worse limitation on what I can see. I also have less interest in going out on cold winter nights than I used to, but that’s at least a seasonal problem. What I can, or rather can’t, see is the main issue.

Which brings me back the Messier catalog, one hundred and ten objects forming a…