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Today's apod picture http://syndicated.livejournal.com/apod/404058.html is a big ho hum unless you've had an interest in looking at the night sky with binoculars. Then the picture becomes oddly familiar. It's oddly familiar for me at least, because I see it as upside-down. The asterism is too large to be seen all at once through most telescopes. It shows up beautifully in binoculars, and if you know where to look it is one of those signposts in the sky you look for night after night. Basically the view in the picture is what you'd see if it's in the eastern sky. If you see it in the west, then the picture is upside down. I can't remember seeing it except in the western sky (because when it's in the east there are brighter things elsewhere to look at)
The name 'the coat hangar' is fine if you are looking at it 'upside down.' But when it's in the west, its straight lines don't remind you of a coat hanger. My brother and I were out together in the evening with the binoculars when we were young men, and happened to find this asterism. With binoculars it's hard to be sure the other person is seeing the same thing in the sky. You point and describe what you see and hope the other person can find it. To me (the other-side-up) it looks like a migrating duck with squared-off wings. What came out in the rush to describe it, that evening, was "Do you see the 'square duck'?" The answer was yes. So for me it will always be the Square Duck in Vulpecula.
The name 'the coat hangar' is fine if you are looking at it 'upside down.' But when it's in the west, its straight lines don't remind you of a coat hanger. My brother and I were out together in the evening with the binoculars when we were young men, and happened to find this asterism. With binoculars it's hard to be sure the other person is seeing the same thing in the sky. You point and describe what you see and hope the other person can find it. To me (the other-side-up) it looks like a migrating duck with squared-off wings. What came out in the rush to describe it, that evening, was "Do you see the 'square duck'?" The answer was yes. So for me it will always be the Square Duck in Vulpecula.
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