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Constellation Report

 Constellation Report

The Deep Sky Wonder of CorvusThis weekend we move on to the constellation Corvus the Crow

Corvus was the bird of Apollo. He was instructed to fetch a beaker of water for Apollo. Unfortunately, Corvus got sidetracked. When he finally returned with the water, Apollo changed his feathers from a beautiful white color to a dark and dirty black. In addition, Apollo took Corvus' beautiful voice and replaced it with a screeching sound. Finally, Apollo put Corvus and the beaker of water (Crater) and placed them in the sky.

 

 

 

Deep Sky Report

The focus of our efforts here will be the deep sky objects of Corvus

Let's start things off by peaking at Delta Corvi. This is an easy double star for small telescopes. The components are mag 3 and mag 8. Delta Corvi, otherwise known as Algorab is the brightest of the stars at the northwest corner of the constellation.


Interacting Galaxy Pair.. NGC4038 & NGC4039 as imaged by Al KellyOk, let's start things off with a very interesting Interacting Galaxy Pair.. NGC4038 & NGC4039(mag10.7). Also known as the Antennae Galaxy, this pair is locked in a gravitational tug-o-war. They'll probably end up merged into one larger galaxy in a few hundred million years. Stay tuned :) 

Anyway... locating this object shouldn't be all that difficult as you can use the top two stars in Corvus to point the way. I was looking at this last weekend. They handle magnification well. At low power, they were hard to separate. This was simplified by cranking the power up to about 200x. 

How's this for a cool shot? Taken by astro-imager Al Kelly, the pair look like a heart rolled on it's side.

Planetary Nebula NGC4361 as imaged by Gordon WaiteNext we'll hit Planetary Nebula NGC4361, (mag10). Checkout this shot by Gordon Waite.

Spiral Galaxy NGC4462
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Spiral Galaxy NGC4462 (mag12)

Good Luck!

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"When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." - Buckminster Fuller

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