As an avid angler, I prefer small ponds over large lakes and reservoirs. Fishing a large body of water can be a daunting task. With hundreds of acres to explore, I could never cover all the hot spots in a day’s time. A 5- to 10-acre pond, on the other hand, can be easily covered in a matter of hours.
It’s the same situation when I switch from fishing to observing. I prefer to “paddle around” a small constellation like Delphinus or Lyra, rather than ride the high seas in a vast stellar aggregation like Virgo or Ophiuchus. With that in mind, let me invite you to one of the night sky’s smallest “ponds,” Triangulum, whose 132-square-degree area is one-tenth that of the largest constellation, Hydra.
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