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.
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.
posted by P. Curtin at 7:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home