Scutum, ‘The Shield’, is a faint and small mid-summer constellation with one of the most splendid deep sky objects -- The Wild Duck Cluster. A number of other deep sky objects are suitable for large binoculars, and there are several interesting variable stars. One of these, the important pulsating variable star known as delta Scuti, changes its magnitude by only one-tenth about every five hours. Thus it isn't really a binocular object. It is recommended that you study Aquila first.
Alpha Scuti is an orange giant, the brightest star in this compact constellation at a magnitude of 3.9. Most of the constellation can be seen in one binocular field, including the two Messier objects. Alpha Scuti is found southwest of Aquila. From lambda Aquilae move east to beta Scuti, then down to alpha. This one binocular field contains a number of star clusters, fairly faint in binoculars but still visible. The closest to alpha, NGC 6664, is a star cluster of about 25 stars and is more dispersed than the others. Also in the same field is R Scuti (just south of beta). This long-period variable ranges from a magnitude of a bright 4.2 to 8.6 every 146.5 days.
Gamma Scuti is far to the south of the constellation, and a convenient star for hopping over to quite a number of Messier objects in nearby Sagittarius and Serpens. The star is one binocular field to the south of alpha. With gamma Scuti at the eastern side of your glasses, M16, M17, and M18 are all visible (from north to south). Also due south of gamma Scuti one binocular field is M25 in Sagittarius.
