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Constellation
Report |
| Our Constellation report is an easy way for people to
become familiar with the nighttime sky. We’ll discuss myths associated
with the various constellations as well as describing the numerous deep
sky objects residing in the area. No equipment is required to view the
constellations, though a star chart can be quite helpful. This ease of
observing makes constellations a natural place to begin your journey to
the stars.
 This weekend we move on to the constellation
Auriga the Charioteer.
This should be an easy constellation to find. You're probably familiar
with several of it's neighbors and it's a fairly bright collection of
stars... led by it's alpha star, Capella.
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Deep
Sky Report
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The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of
Auriga . Auriga can be found high and to the east shortly after
dark. It's sandwiched in between a bunch of well known constellations... Perseus
to the west... Gemini to the east... Taurus and Orion to the south.
Capella is located a mere 45 light years distance,
and.. at mag0.08 is the 5th brightest star in the sky. It has a slight yellowish
tint to it and.. it's a double star. It's companion, however, is too close
and too faint to be seen. It was first detected by astronomers at the Lick
Observatory in 1899 |
 Checkout this awesome
Jerry
Lodriguss image of Auriga. Notice
the detail he's captured. THIS is what Auriga would look like under truly
dark skies. Jerry captured this image using a 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens for a
5 minute exposure.
I've mentioned it several times, but... for any
newcomers, you have to checkout Jerry's site. He does amazing work! |
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 Ok, let's start things off with
the first of three Messier Objects residing within Auriga, Open Star Cluster
M38(mag6.4). Estimates place this object about 4,200 light years distant.
And, with a diameter of about 20', astronomers estimate an actual diameter
of about 25 light years. M38 is believed to be about 220 million years old
and contains a yellow giant of mag 7.9 as the brightest of its roughly 100
member stars.
While you're enjoying M38, see
if you can spy tiny open cluster NGC1907. It's only minutes away, but it's
diminutive appearance leads many to overlook it. When you spot it,
pump up the magnification a notch. This will make it the only object in
the field of view, and allow for better observation.
Don
Brown's image to the right shows M38 and NGC1907. The 20 minute
guided shot was captured on 800 speed Fuji film in an Olympus OM1 through
a Takahashi FS102 at prime focus... |
 Moving on about 2.5° to the southeast, we come to another fine
Open
Star Cluster Open M36(mag6.0). M36 is about 4,100 light years distant
and spans approximately 12'. It has about 60 member stars, the brightest of which are
about mag 9. Estimates of the age of M36 point to about 25 million years.
This is quite young for a star cluster. M36 is the smallest of Auriga's
Messier clusters.
The accompanying image was taken onSeptember 14th,
2003 by Utah Skies own
Anthony Arrigo, using a Sony DSC-F717 digital camera attached to a 150mm
Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. It is a single 30 second exposure.
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 Next up is yet another beautiful
Open
Star Cluster M37(mag5.6). M37 is the brightest of the 3 open clusters in
Auriga. It is also the richest of the 3, containing roughly 150 member stars brighter than mag
12.5. Some estimates suggest upwards of 500 stars. Astronomers estimate
its age at about 300 million years. This number is derived from the high
number of red giant stars found in the cluster. Its distance is estimated
to be between 3,600 and 4700 light years. Its diameter is 24' which corresponds to
about 20 to 25 light years across. M37 is always my favorite stop in Auriga. The
bright, reddish star at it's center immediately becomes visible as my eyes
lock on. It's quite a beautiful site.
This image was taken by Utah Skies own Don
Brown using a 4", f/8 Takahashi reflector and an SBIG STV.
He captured 15 60-second luminance and 4-each 60-second RGB exposures on Monday night, January 6th, 2003. They were then combined in Maxim DL.
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 Next we'll hit a
cluster loaded with nebulosity, NGC1931(mag11.3)
In fact, it's got so much nebulosity, you'll almost lose the cluster.
Anyway... this whole object is kind of small... about 3'x3' so once you've
found it, you'll want to crank up the magnification a bit. I'd also
compare the views with and without various nebula filters.
This beautiful shot was taken by Al
Kelly. Make sure you visit his
website... it's loaded with awesome shots and great information on how
to take great CCD images.
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 Next
up is a sweet Open Star Cluster, NGC1857(mag7) as imaged by
Former Featured
Astrophotographer, Al Kelly. Have you been to
Al's website lately? If not, you're
missing out. Al just keeps on cranking out impressive views of some of the
night skies most beautiful deep sky objects. |
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah
Skies Challenge Object, IC405 also known as The Flaming Star
Nebula.
We've got another beauty from Jerry
Lodriguss for you. Look at the amount of nebulosity he's captured. No
wonder its called the Flaming Star Nebula. It really does look like the
star is on fire.
This object is a combination reflection and emission
nebula. To best view the nebula, you'll want some aperture, dark skies and
an H-Beta filter.
Good Luck!
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Did you ever consider... |
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"But in science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs." - Francis Darwin (1848-1925), British scientist |
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