Caliente

Midnight's a good time to see Double Cluster

You've thrown off your circadian rhythm with your annual tryptophan-induced afternoon nap, so midnight finds you wide awake. That's just the right time to break out the binoculars and take in the Double Cluster in Perseus for a couple of reasons: 1.) You'll get maximum viewing enjoyment, because at midnight the Double Cluster is almost directly overhead, the portion of night sky least affected by light pollution. 2.) You can use the Double Cluster to feel lucky by comparison if your Thanksgiving is overstuffed with relatives who don't know when to leave and ask questions like "Does this look infected to you?" While Uncle Ned will be gone by Monday, stars in the Double Cluster spend thousands of years elbow-to-elbow with relatives, as these are families of up to thousands of stars formed from the same giant molecular cloud and gravitationally bound to one another. The Double Cluster will appear as a dim, fuzzy patch to the naked eye, but binoculars will reveal its stellar beauty.