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Rant: I found out the Orion Nebula is close enough to see with my naked eye and I've been looking at the wrong part of the sky for years
Okay so last Tuesday I'm killing time at the library in Missoula waiting for my wife, and I grab this old astronomy book off the shelf. It has a chart showing the Orion Nebula sits about 1,344 light years away. I figured that had to be a telescope-only thing, but the book says you can spot it naked eye as the fuzzy middle star in Orion's sword. I've stared at Orion my whole life and never once knew that blurry spot was a whole nebula. So I took my cheap 10x50 binoculars out to the back field behind my place that night and there it was, this grayish puff of light with a few tiny stars stuck in it. I just stood there in the cold for like 20 minutes feeling dumb and amazed at the same time. Anyone here shot it from a light polluted town? I'm wondering if a phone camera through the binoculars is even worth trying or if I should just enjoy it with my eyes.
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