After a severe and cold storm moved through the area these last couple of days, leaving the Bay Area hills shivered in snow, there was some clear sky tonight. Transparency was not great, and seeing was predicted to be worse, so I used my 15x70 binos with mirror mount in the back yard for about an hour. M42, M43, and Orion's Belt to start, with the fine arcs and loops of stars around. Meissa, showing more stars than can be seen naked eye, as Galileo discovered. Up to M35, large and loose.
Then scanning around I came upon a fairly large milky haze, oval to rectangular, but with very soft edges. I thought it was M45 out of focus. But then I realized it was supernova remnant M1 -- which really surprised me as I remember four years ago when trying to find it with the new to me Big Blue on a similar cold night I could not find it, despite my best star hop. It must have been the larger context of the binocular view. This is one of the Messiers which certainly could be confused as a comet, unlike many of the star clusters.
Speaking of which, I swept up M41, M52, M47, M46, and finally the Beehive, M44, looking very fine and sharp (and complete) in the binocular view.
So the binos win again and help make for an enjoyable night of it.
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