The Night Sky: January 2007

In the north look for the bright Capella, in Auriga. The Milky Way runs through this kite-shaped constellation and so we find a number of interesting star fields. The open clusters M36, M37, and M38 are easy to find with binoculars. Darker skies are needed to locate the emission and planetary nebulae in this region. Note that the southeastern corner of the kite is actually beta Tauri, the tip of the Bull’s western horn. See if you can find the supernova remnant M1 due west of zeta Tauri, the tip of the eastern horn. M1 will look like a mere smudge of light in small telescopes but, with a larger ‘scope, one can discern more detail.

South of this is Orion, one of the few northern constellations that even first-time observers accept as a unified figure. The most prominent deep-sky object is M42, the famed Orion Nebula. This is an interesting sight in telescopes of all apertures and is also a beautiful object to photograph. Because M42 is such an easy object, many observers tend to overlook the myriad open and diffuse nebulae that follow the lines of Orion’s belt an sword. Don’t forget to scan the region around Orion’s upraised right arm through which the Milky Way runs. A slow scan with binoculars reveals some fascinating star clouds.

At the foot of Orion is Lepus, star poor but sprinkled with faint galaxies and planetary nebulae. The open cluster NGC 2017 and the globular gluster M79 are relatively easy to find. Gamma Leporis is a fine double star. Even farther south is Columba, which hosts a number of galaxies as well as the faint globular cluster NGC 1851. Caelum has little of interest to amateurs although alpha Caeli is double.

South of this is faint Pictor, which is overshadowed by Carina to the east. Canopus, alpha carinae, outshines all stars save Sirius.

Still the most impressive object in the southern summer is the Large Magellanic Cloud. NGC 2070, the Tarantula Nebula, is a naked-eye object. Look for the open cluster NGC 1910 also embedded in the LMC.

The Night Sky: December 2006

Special notes: The Geminid meteor shower should be worth observing this year. They peak the evenings of December 13-14. Unlike many other showers one need not wait until the morning hours for these slow moving meteors.

Look for the bright asteroid Iris in the dark region west of the Pleiades this month. The December edition of Sky and Telescope has a handy finder chart.

Looking north, the area between Cassiopeia and Camelopardalis contains some great fields for binocular sweeping. look for the inverted Y shape of Perseus. Half way between alpha Persei and Cassiopeia is the Double Cluster, denoted h and chi Persei. This is a great sight with wide-field equipment. At the western “foot” pf Perseus is Algol, an eclipsing binary that can go from maximum to minimum within five hours. Gupta has times for monthly minima of Algol. M34 is an open cluster that can be found by sweeping west of Algol. From very dark-sky sites one can try to glimpse the California Nebula near ksi Persei.

South of Perseus, hovering in otherwise unremarkable skies, is M45, the Pleiades. This bright blue cluster is easily one of the most popular open clusters, and it is often mistaken for the Big Dipper. It is a treat in telescopes of all sizes. From the Pleiades we move to the V- shaped cluster due east: the Hyades, with red Aldebaran on its eastern side. A sweep through this area shows that the Hyades, a much older clusters, contains a more varied star population than the Pleiades.

Eridanus meanders from the foot of Orion to the deep south- ending at Achernar. Cradled by Eridanus is Fornax which contains a dense cluster of galaxies. Though none are especially bright, many can be glimpsed together in a single wide-field view.

The Large Magellanic Cloud, the most accessible galactic structure after the Milky Way, contains a huge number of deep sky objects to explore.