Astronomy - January 2024 USA

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JAN UARY 2024
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101
WEIRDEST
COSMIC
OBJECTS
A GUIDE TO
STRANGE CREATURES
IN THE UNIVERSE
ODD NEBULAE
BIZARRE GALAXIES
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Vol. 52• Issue 1
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2 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024
JANUARY 2024
VOL. 52, NO. 1
CONTENTS 41
ON THE COVER
The Crescent Nebula challenges
observers of Cygnus. JOE NAVARA, GLENN
7 COVER STORY // 101 weirdest cosmic objects CLOUDER, AND RUSSELL DISCOMBE
1 UGC 12914 and UGC 12915 28 Purgathofer-Weinberger 1 56 Lemon Slice Nebula 84 Eta Carinae
2 Alpha Persei Cluster 29 NGC 3190 Galaxy Group 57 NGC 6231 85 Einstein Cross
3 NGC 4151 30 Epsilon Eridani 58 Barnard’s Galaxy 86 The Coma Galaxy Cluster
4 NGC 1023 31 Lalande 21185 59 Dark Doodad 87 Wolf 359
5 Jones-Emberson 1 32 M15 and Pease 1 60 SagDIG 88 The Boomerang Nebula
6 Dwingeloo 1 33 Hind’s Variable Nebula 61 Red Spider Nebula 89 Coalsack Nebula
7 NGC 3079 and Q0957+561 34 The Hercules Galaxy Cluster 62 Rho Ophiuchi Region 90 T Tauri
8 Jones 1 35 Simeis 147 63 PG 1634+706 91 RR Lyrae
9 Hoag’s Object 36 WLM 64 Gomez’s Hamburger 92 Streicher 7
10 NGC 147 and NGC 185 37 NGC 404 65 Sculptor Dwarf 93 Atoms for Peace Galaxy
11 NGC 4485 and 38 Barnard’s E 66 Burbidge’s Chain 94 Southern Pleiades
the Cocoon Galaxy 39 The Necklace Nebula 67 Spirograph Nebula 95 Mice Galaxies
12 Zwicky’s Triplet 40 Wild’s Triplet 68 NGC 300 96 M87
13 The Intergalactic Wanderer 41 Copeland’s Septet 69 Snake Nebula 97 FU Orionis
14 The Integral Sign Galaxy 42 Merrill’s Star Nebula 70 Thor’s Helmet 98 Ursa Major Moving Group
15 Stephan’s Quintet 43 Zwicky’s Necklace 71 SS 433 99 NGC 5189
16 Maffei 1 and Maffei 2 44 The Coma Star Cluster 72 Cartwheel Galaxy 100 Tabby’s Star
17 Gyulbudaghian’s Nebula 45 Leo I 73 Gum Nebula 101 Strottner-Drechsler-Sainty
18 Mayall’s Object 46 Barnard’s Star 74 Kepler’s Supernova Object 1
19 NGC 1275 et al. 47 The Medusa Nebula 75 Galactic Center
20 Crescent Nebula 48 IC 443 76 The Vela Supernova Remnant
21 Egg Nebula 49 Barnard’s Loop 77 Kapteyn’s Star IN EVERY ISSUE
22 NGC 4319 and Markarian 205 50 M67 78 Tadpole Galaxy From the Editor 4
23 Seyfert’s Sextet 51 Fornax Dwarf 79 The Bullet Cluster Sky This Month 28
24 NGC 6826 52 Pencil Nebula 80 P Cygni Starting strong.
25 Keenan’s System 53 Antennae Galaxies 81 Abell 194 MARTIN RATCLIFFE
26 NGC 520 54 Ant Nebula 82 Jewel Box Cluster AND ALISTER LING
27 3C 273 55 Saturn Nebula 83 The Cloverleaf
Star Dome and
Paths of the Planets 30
RICHARD TALCOTT;
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROEN KELLY
Advertiser Index 59
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WEIRDEST
101
COSMIC
OBJECTS
A strange brew of astronomical oddities awaits you and your telescope.
TWO YEARS AGO, our and 2, which are so heavily obscured
by the Milky Way that they weren’t ABOUT THE AUTHORS
special January issue brought
forth a popular package, 101 Must-See discovered until 1967. How about spying
really odd planetary nebulae? Take a shot Michael E. Bakich is a contributing
Cosmic Objects. Now we follow it up in
a very different direction. My thought at the Saturn Nebula, the Lemon Slice editor of Astronomy who has spent
this time was to produce something Nebula, or Jones 1. countless hours observing fascinating
covering not the brightest, but some of With the right scope, you can see deep-sky objects.
the strangest celestial objects you can a quasar, 3C 273, from your backyard,
see or image with amateur telescopes. or the galaxy with a quasar near it, Alan Goldstein’s 50-year-long
Some of the present 101 objects have NGC 4319 and Markarian 205, that interest in astronomy aligns with the
strange names — Gyulbudaghian’s caused a years-long controversy over founding of the magazine. He has been
Nebula, Purgathofer-Weinberger 1, or redshifts as distance indicators. The sky contributing since 1981.
Gomez’s Hamburger. Some are weird is loaded with mysterious galaxies. Take
stars — Tabby’s Star, Eta Carinae, or a peek at Zwicky’s Triplet, Seyfert’s Phil Harrington received the Walter
FU Orionis. Some are strange regions of Sextet, or the Hercules Galaxy Cluster. Scott Houston Award at Stellafane 2018
the sky filled with color and apparently In short, you’ll find many hours of
for his lifelong work promoting and
exotic behaviors — Rho Ophiuchi, the cosmic exploration in this issue, whether
you spy some of these creatures with teaching astronomy.
Red Spider Nebula, or the Jewel Box.
NASA/ESA AND BALICK ET AL.
Most of these 101 objects, however, your own eyes, capture them with a
camera, or merely enjoy reading about Stephen James O’Meara is a
are really compelling and odd ducks that
them on these pages. globetrotting observer who is always
can be explored from a dark-sky site.
Want an astrophotographic challenge? Have fun with the journey. I’ll be taking looking for the next great celestial event.
Try shooting the nearby galaxies Maffei 1 it right beside you. — DAVID J. EICHER
UGC 12914 AND UGC 12915
A long time ago, two spiral gal- There was so much
1
axies far, far away were slowly momentum that each galaxy
drawing closer to each other, kept moving despite the crash
until, about 25 million to 30 mil- — a case of a galactic hit-and-
lion years before the image run. Such collisions often
here was taken, they collided trigger rapid bursts of star
head-on. formation, but for this pair
Found 180 million light- the opposite happened. The
years away in the constellation cosmic dust and glowing red
Pegasus, both UGC 12914 and clouds of ionized hydrogen
UGC 12915 managed to pull between the galaxies have all
away from each other but were the necessary materials for
left badly warped and stretched new stars to be born. However,
from this violent event. The due to the head-on nature
aftermath shows a bridge of of the collision, the impact
hydrogen gas connecting the between galactic disks and
two. In radio images, it makes gases injected a massive
the galaxies look like warm amount of energy, creating
taffy candy being pulled apart. fierce turbulence. This chaos
That, plus their twisted appear- hindered the collection and
ances, led to the nickname the compression of gas necessary
Taffy Galaxies. for new star formation. — P.H.
ALPHA PERSEI CLUSTER NGC 4151

Also known as Melotte NGC 4151 is an intriguing spiral galaxy, discovered by William Herschel
20, Collinder 39, and in 1787. Modern images show an intense central core surrounded by
the Perseus Moving an oval ring of stars, dust, and gas. Red splotches throughout the spi-
Group, this open clus- ral arms display an array of emission nebulae, while blue regions mark
ter is a loosely bound concentrations of newly formed stars. Studying its spiral structure
association of predom- gives hints of a central bar, which has led astronomers to classify it
inantly blue and blue- as an SAB intermediate spiral, between barred and unbarred spirals.
MARTIN GEMBEC (ASTROFOTKY.CZ/~MAG)
white type O and B American astronomer Carl Seyfert was the first to realize that
stars spanning 6° of NGC 4151’s center was unusual. His landmark research led to this gal-
the northern autumn axy and others like it being known as Seyfert galaxies. Seyfert galaxies
sky. Many of the clus- contain actively growing supermassive black holes buried in their
ter members are visible cores. In a sense, they are the missing link between quasars and
2 to the unaided eye and

through binoculars.
The brightest of
the bunch is 2nd-
relatively dormant galactic black holes, like our Milky Way’s.
At roughly 52 million light-years away, NGC 4151 is one of the clos-
est galaxies with an active galactic nucleus, allowing it to be studied in
greater detail. In 1970, the Uhuru X-ray observatory satellite detected
magnitude Mirfak (Alpha [α] Persei), a type F white/yellow X-ray emissions originating from NGC 4151, evidence of a central black
supergiant. Other prominent naked-eye members include hole. Four decades later, the Chandra X-ray Observatory obtained data
Delta (δ), Sigma (σ), and Psi (ψ) Persei. About 50 stars belong suggesting that these emissions are likely caused by an outburst
to the cluster, although some sources cite 10 times as many. fueled by the
3
These stars are only about 60 million years old. They are supermassive
referred to as “moving” because they share a similar, albeit black hole, while
very slow, proper motion against more distant stars. material swirls
Although the brighter stars in the α -Persei Cluster had around it in an
accretion disk.
ADAM BLOCK/MOUNT LEMMON SKYCENTER/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
been known since our ancient ancestors looked skyward,

Italian astronomer Giovanni Hodierna is credited as the first Combining
person to catalog it as a nebulous object in 1654. However, images of its
Sir Arthur Eddington was the first to recognize the Perseus core taken at
Moving Group was a stellar grouping. This prompted British visible, radio,
astronomer Philibert Melotte to include it in his 1915 catalog and X-ray wave-
of star clusters. But it wasn’t until 1938 that American astron- lengths gives
omer Robert Trumpler proved it to be a true cluster. NGC 4151 a
Two independent techniques to determine a star’s dis- supernatural
tance showed that the stars in the Perseus Moving Cluster appearance, and
lie between 557 and 650 light-years away. — P.H. the nickname
Eye of Sauron
(from The Lord of
the Rings). — P.H.
5
NOIRLAB
SERGE BRUNIER, JEAN-FRANCOIS BAX, DAVID VERNET, C2PU/OCA
JONES-EMBERSON 1
NGC 1023 atlas as Arp 135. As imaging improved, it
became clear that the lump was actually The saga of the planetary nebula Jones-
NGC 1023 is the largest member of a small a small irregular galaxy that is likely Emberson 1 began 148 years before Harvard
group of galaxies in Perseus. After exten- tidally locked to the larger NGC 1023. Observatory astronomers Rebecca Jones and
sive study, NGC 1023 has been classified That companion galaxy is now referred Richard Emberson discovered it in the faint
as a barred lenticular galaxy, which have to as NGC 1023A. constellation Lynx. In 1790, William Herschel
protruding central bulges that taper toward Hubble Space Telescope studies discovered a small, nebulous glow about 2½°
their edges. In many ways, they look like unveiled a supermassive black hole at northwest of 27 Lyncis. He moved on without
elliptical galaxies, but also share some the center of NGC 1023. Its mass is noticing a second, fainter glow nearby. That
common traits of spiral galaxies — except between 40 million and 60 million times object was discovered 66 years later by
for one: They do not have spiral arms. In greater than our Sun’s. Hubble also William Parsons, Earl of Rosse, through his
the case of NGC 1023, the disk shows no shows that many stars closest to the 72-inch “Leviathan” reflector. Both were later
discernible structure, but there is a hint black hole orbit in a small, flattened added to John Dreyer’s New General
of a central bar, leading to the SB0 disk rather than at random angles as Catalogue as NGC 2474 and NGC 2475 and
classification. other stars in the central bulge do. And classified as dim elliptical galaxies separated
Detailed images of NGC 1023 show a even though some are orbiting as fast by just 25".
lump on the eastern side of the galaxy, as 1.3 million mph (2.1 million km/h), they Then, in 1939, Jones and Emberson pub-
which was thought to be a lopsided spiral still cannot break the powerful grip of the lished a paper in that year’s Harvard College
arm and led Halton Arp to add it to his black hole. — P.H. Observatory Bulletin August issue, announc-
ing that “a recent photographic plate
[revealed] a faint nebular ring has been
4 detected joining two condensations, NGC

2474 … and NGC 2475.”
THE PLANETARY SOCIETY (ADAM BLOCK/MOUNT LEMMON SKYCENTER/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA)
Their error did not become apparent for

more than 40 years, until Nancy and Ronald
Buta of McDonald Observatory realized that
Jones and Emberson had not photographed
NGC 2474 and 2475 at all. Instead, they had
discovered an unusual planetary nebula half
a degree to the north, about 1,600 light-years
away, that had never been seen before.
In addition to its unconventional discovery
story, Jones-Emberson 1 looks weird as far as
planetary nebulae go. Images show a familiar
ring structure. But what makes it strange are
two brighter lobes connected by opposing
faint arcs of nebulosity. This unusual cloud
structure has given rise to the nickname of
the Headphone Nebula. — P.H.
DWINGELOO 1
Like Maffei 1 and 2 (see #16), Dwingeloo 1 is located in the con-
stellation Cassiopeia, obscured from direct view by opaque clouds
Q0957+561
of dust within the Milky Way’s zone of avoidance. It was first spot-
ted in 1994 by the Dwingeloo Obscured Galaxy Survey using the
82-foot (25 meters) dish at Dwingeloo Radio Observatory in the
Netherlands. NGC 3079
Thanks to infrared techniques that can pierce dust clouds,
Dwingeloo 1 is now recognized as a member of the nearby
IC 342-Maffei 1 Group. Like the other galaxies in the collection,
Dwingeloo 1 is estimated to be about 10 million light-years away.
It is thought to contain more than 100 billion stars — making it
about the same size and mass as the Triangulum Spiral (M33).
ROBERT EDER
Infrared images clearly show that Dwingeloo 1 has two spiral
arms curving away from the ends of a central bar — with at least
15 HII emission regions in both arms.
Dwingeloo 1 is accompanied by two smaller satellite galaxies.
The first, known as Dwingeloo 2, is an irregular galaxy discovered
in 1996. Dwingeloo 2’s irregular structure is likely due to gravita-
NGC 3079 AND Q0957+561
tional interplay with the more massive Dwingeloo 1. The second In 1790, William Herschel discovered NGC 3079, a nearly edge-on
satellite galaxy, known as MB 3, was discovered by the team of barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major about 50 million light-years away.
Marshall McCall and Ronald Buta in 1996 using the Burrell Hubble images reveal its spiral disk is peppered with many HII
Schmidt Telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory. MB 3 is a dwarf regions that appear strikingly red. Hubble also uncovered how the
spheroidal galaxy characterized by a highly flattened disk. — P.H. galactic nucleus is emitting a lumpy bubble of hot gas surrounded
DAVID RATLEDGE by glowing fingers of interstellar matter. The bubble is more than
6
3,000 light-years wide and towers 3,500 light-years above the
galaxy’s spiral disk. Research suggests that the bubble is caused
by a stream of high-speed particles that were released during a
surge of star formation.
There’s another oddity nearby. Though not physically related,
Q0957+561 lies just 14' northwest of NGC 3079. This object con-
tains not one, but two quasars separated by 6". Do quasars form
in pairs too, like some stars? That was undoubtedly one of the first
questions asked when Q0957+561 (nicknamed the Twin Quasar)
was discovered in 1979. Further studies revealed that it’s actually a
single quasar; it only appears double due to gravitational lensing.
A galaxy cataloged as YGKOW G1 happens to sit exactly
between us and the distant quasar. Its gravity warps the space
around it, bending the path of light that passes nearby, like a lens.
In fact, Q0957+561 was the first known example of a gravitational
lens, proving that Einstein got it right when he said that gravity
can bend the fabric of space and time. — P.H.
JONES 1
Planetary nebula Jones 1 is named after
American astronomer Rebecca Jones,
who discovered this weird object in 1941
structure that is highlighted by a
pair of brighter lobes of nebulosity
that appear opposite of each other.
8
on photographic plates taken at Harvard Jones-Emberson 1 is nicknamed the
T.A. RECTOR/UNI. OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE, H. SCHWEIKER/WIYN, AND NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA
Observatory. She was well known for her Headphone Nebula after its appear-
galaxy studies, and at the time of the ance, but Jones 1 could just as easily
discovery, she was an assistant to carry the same handle.
Harlow Shapley. Jones 1 is also named PK 104–29.1
Jones 1 is located in Pegasus just in The Perek-Kohoutek Catalogue of
north of the Great Square. Although Planetary Nebulae, compiled by Czech
it measures 5' across, Jones 1 is an astronomers Luboš Perek and Luboš
extremely faint planetary at 15th magni- Kohoutek and published in 1967.
tude. The white dwarf central star is Estimates place the planetary nebula
even fainter at 16th magnitude. (Don’t at about 2,300 to 2,700 light-years
confuse Jones 1 for Jones-Emberson 1 from Earth.
in Lynx [see #5]; she and Richard Planetary nebulae are classified
Emberson discovered that planetary based on their shape and structure.
nebula two years earlier.) Jones 1 is in Class IIIb, meaning it
If you compare the appearances of displays an irregular disk of varying
both of Jones’ discovered planetary neb- brightness and an annular structure.
ulae, there is definitely a familial similar- For comparison, Jones-Emberson 1
ity. Each shows a wispy face-on ring is a Class IV annular planetary. — P.H.
9 NASA, ESA, HUBBLE; PROCESSING: BENOIT BLANCO
HOAG’S OBJECT NGC 147 AND NGC 185

In the October 1950 issue of The The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is known for A 2020 study led by Sangmo Tony
Astronomical Journal, American astronomer sharing a nearby space with two smaller Sohn of the Space Telescope Science
Arthur Hoag states that the object “appears satellite galaxies, M32 and NGC 205. But Institute published in The Astrophysical
to be a perfectly symmetrical planetary neb- fewer people are aware that it also has Journal, found otherwise. Those measure-
ula.” However, he acknowledged that some many more distant satellite galaxies, ments showed that NGC 147 has a
of its characteristics did not match those of including two across the border in distance of 2.36 million light-years, while
other planetary nebulae, so he also sug- Cassiopeia. William Herschel found NGC 185 is 2.07 million light-years away,
gested that instead it might be “a new NGC 185 in November 1787. And fainter placing them both on the near side of
species among the ‘pathological’ galaxies.” NGC 147 evaded detection until his son Andromeda. Due to Andromeda’s over-
Today, Hoag’s Object is one of the finest, John discovered it in September 1829. whelming gravity, the study concluded
most perfect examples of a rare galaxy type: NGC 185 and NGC 147 are only one that both galaxies “may be a chance
a ring galaxy. It’s over 600 million light-years degree apart in the sky, and just over 7° alignment rather than a physical pair.”
away in the constellation Serpens and spans north of the Andromeda Galaxy. Both are Like the Andromeda Galaxy, both
over 120,000 light-years. At the center, dwarf ellipticals found in M31’s outer halo, NGC 147 and NGC 185 are on trajectories
there’s a sphere of older reddish stars, but farther out than M32 and NGC 205. to merge with the Milky Way. The latter is
looking very much like an elliptical galaxy. Past studies concluded that because of the faster of the two, drawing closer at
Moving outward, there’s a seemingly empty the close proximity of NGC 185 and NGC a rate of 472,000 mph (760,000 km/h).
gap until arriving at the ring. The ring is 147, they must form a gravitationally bound NGC 147 is advancing at a more leisurely
made up of young blue stars highlighted by pair — a binary galaxy, if you will. rate of 365,000 mph (587,000 km/h). — P.H.
spokes that appear curved, signs of rotation.
Astronomers have been asking how the
galaxy evolved since 1950.
Ring galaxies can result when a smaller
galaxy collides with a larger, disk-shaped
galaxy. This collision generates a density
10
wave within the disk, resulting in a distinct
ringlike structure. But there seems to be no
evidence of a past collision in the case of
Hoag’s Object. Besides, the core of Hoag’s
Object is spheroidal, while the nucleus of a
barred spiral is typically disk-shaped.
Look again at the gap between the
ring and central core. Notice anything?
It’s another ring galaxy that’s much farther
away. What are the extraordinary odds
DAN BARTLETT
that a rare ring galaxy is seen in the gap

of another ring galaxy? — P.H.
aftermath of the cosmic THE
crash, which totaled
both galaxies and left INTERGALACTIC
them nearly unrecogniz- WANDERER
able. NGC 4490 was
once a barred spiral, but Globular cluster NGC 2419 is an enigma hid-
the clash with NGC ing in the dim constellation Lynx, way off the
4485 stretched its arms beaten path. While most Milky Way globulars
into a chrysalis shape, surround the galactic core in Sagittarius,
leading to its nickname NGC 2419 lies halfway across the sky. On
the Cocoon Galaxy. New Year’s Eve 1788, William Herschel first
NGC 4485 was also spotted a faint blur of light in Lynx that he
a spiral once, but was described as “considerably bright, round,
so warped by the inter- very gradually much brighter in the middle.”
action that nearly any Then, in 1918, American astronomer Harlow
trace of its former self Shapley determined that NGC 2419 was
has been erased, and 99,000 light-years away, much farther than
it now lags behind as other known globulars at the time.
the two galaxies slowly NGC 2419 then earned the nickname the
separate. Hubble Intergalactic Wanderer. Recent estimates
images reveal a trail
11
nearly triple the distance to 275,000 light-
of bright stars and HII years from Earth and 300,000 light-years
extending 24,000 light- from the galactic center. However, techni-
2MASS years back toward cally, it’s not wandering aimlessly in space.
NGC 4490. Just like the other 150 or so globulars in our
NGC 4485 AND The stirred-up, entangled clouds of galaxy’s collection, NGC 2419 is gravitation-
gas and dust in both galaxies sparked ally bound to the Milky Way and orbits the
THE COCOON bursts of star formation. The striking red galactic core — but with a much higher
GALAXY and pink blotches seen here are huge eccentricity, taking an estimated 3 billion
ionized clouds, energized into fluores- years to complete one trip.
Located just 40' northwest of 4th- cence by the ultraviolet energy from NGC 2419 is unlike many other globulars,
magnitude Chara (Beta [β] Canum hot, newly formed stars that lie nearby. whose ancient red stars are all largely the
Venaticorum), the Cocoon Galaxy (NGC In 2020, a team of astronomers ana- same chemically. Those in NGC 2419 can be
4490) forms an intriguing pair with neigh- lyzing infrared images discovered that divided into two groups based on their com-
boring NGC 4485. Both were discovered NGC 4490 has two central cores. The position. One set of stars is much richer in
by William Herschel in 1788 and are listed second core was not apparent in visible helium than the second set, and is largely
together as Arp 269. light due to intervening dust clouds. The gathered in the center of the cluster. The
Studies reveal that sometime in the team concluded that NGC 4490 is likely groups vary in abundance of other elements
distant past, NGC 4485 and NGC 4490 a remnant of an even earlier merger with as well, notably nitrogen. These inconsisten-
collided with each other. We now see the a now-absorbed galaxy. — P.H. cies seem to show that NGC 2419 was
formed in not one, but two distinct stages
that remain a mystery. — P.H.
One of the weirdest entries in Arp’s RADEK CHROMIK
ZWICKY’S
13
atlas is Arp 103, also known as Zwicky’s
TRIPLET Triplet. Arp 103’s nickname refers to Swiss
astronomer Fritz Zwicky, whom Arp
Halton Arp’s 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies acknowledged as one of the colleagues
was the first comprehensive effort to study who discovered some of the peculiar
and photograph unusual galaxies and gal- galaxies that he included in his study.
axy groups that showed strange behavior. Zwicky’s Triplet is situated approxi-
Arp raised fundamental questions about mately 425 million light-years away, near
the nature of galaxies themselves. While the star 52 Herculis. None of the three
our understanding of galaxies has galaxies in this system are listed as a
improved since Arp’s time, many of group in the New General Catalogue or
these questions still perplex astronomers. Index Catalogue. Instead, they have indi-
vidual entries in the Catalogue of Principal
12
Galaxies (PGC) published in 1989.
Arp 103’s brightest galaxy is PGC 59061,
at 15th magnitude. Its southwestern flank
is overlapped by PGC 59062, a smaller,
fainter galaxy. A luminous tidal arm of
intergalactic matter stretches in the oppo-
site direction from PGC 59062 toward
the group’s third galaxy, 16th-magnitude
lenticular PGC 59065, 2' to the north.
Initially, Arp believed that PGC 59061/2
was a spiral galaxy connected to elliptical
galaxy PGC 59065 through a tidal arm of
intergalactic matter. However, further
analysis revealed that all three galaxies in
Arp 103 are spirals. PGC 59062/5 are now
tagged as S0 spirals, or lenticulars. — P.H.
SDSS
spirals display little or no central bulge
and have a 10-to-1 or higher diameter-to-
thickness ratio. They almost always have
a low surface brightness, which makes
them difficult to spot.
NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY

But UGC 3697 is even more unique.
Rather than having a flat disk like other
super-thin spirals, the two ends of UGC
3697’s galactic plane curl slightly in oppo-
site directions, like an integral sign (∫) or
a wavy potato chip. What’s causing that,
14 and how would this galaxy appear if we

could view it from a steeper angle?
No one knows the answer to how it
would look from 45° or 90°, but there’s a
THE INTEGRAL SIGN GALAXY theory for the undulating ends. The odd
appearance is likely caused by the gal-
While examining photo plates of the warped profile, and is cataloged in the axy’s relatively small mass being twisted
Palomar Observatory Sky Survey in 1967, Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies and contorted by the peculiar neighbor-
British astrophysicist Geoffrey Burbidge as UGC 3697. ing galaxy UGC 3714 and several dwarf
noticed something peculiar in the constella- The Integral Sign Galaxy is an unusual galaxies that lie nearby. Another theory
tion Camelopardalis. A galaxy? If so, it was super-thin Type Sd spiral galaxy seen edge- comes from a study published in 2004.
nothing like any he, or anyone, had ever on from our perspective. Although “super- It speculates that the appearance may
seen. Burbidge’s weird find is now nick- thin” may sound like a subjective term, it have been caused by an infalling satellite
named the Integral Sign Galaxy for its has a measurable definition. Super-thin galaxy. — P.H.
STEPHAN’S
QUINTET
In 1929, Edwin Hubble made a discovery that
changed our view of the universe forever.
15
After examining a multitude of spectra from
other galaxies, he concluded that the farther
away a galaxy was, the faster it was receding.
This revelation, now called Hubble’s Law,
showed that the universe was expanding.
But there were exceptions. One of the
best-known enigmas, Stephan’s Quintet,
was discovered in 1877 by Édouard
Stephan, former director of Marseille
Observatory in France. It lies less than
½° south of the bright, unbarred spiral
galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus.
The five galaxies that make up
Stephan’s Quintet are: elliptical NGC 7317;
elliptical NGC 7318A, colliding with barred
spiral NGC 7318B; distorted barred spiral
NGC 7319; and barred spiral NGC 7320.
All are crammed into a tight 20' area.
Early images of the quintet — such as
that used in the 1946 classic film It’s a
Wonderful Life to represent talking angels
— were low resolution, making it appear as
if all five galaxies formed a single, compact
group. But spectral data showed otherwise.
NGC 7320 is 40 million light-years from
Earth, while the other four galaxies are
about 290 million light-years away.
Two years ago, NASA released an
image of the group taken by the James
Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It showed
all five in unprecedented detail. The image
reveals dazzling clusters of young stars and
NASA, ESA, CSA, AND STSCI
regions where new stars are being born in

a burst of activity. Long, curved tails of star
material are being pulled away from the
galaxies due to interacting tidal forces. The
JWST image also reveals immense shock-
waves created as NGC 7318B collides with
NGC 7318A. — P.H.
MAFFEI 1
AND MAFFEI 2
In 1967, the Italian astrophysicist Paolo
JERRY MACON. INSET: ADAM BLOCK

Maffei, one of the pioneers of infrared
astronomy, made an amazing discov-
ery. While scanning images of IC 1805
(the Heart Nebula) in Cassiopeia, he
spotted two galaxies that had never
been seen before. These two galaxies
had evaded detection due to their
position within what is referred to as
the zone of avoidance. That’s the
region of the sky that is obscured visu-
ally by gas and dust along the plane of
the Milky Way. Infrared wavelengths,
however, can pierce those clouds.
As a result of Maffei’s breakthrough
discovery, these two galaxies are now
known as Maffei 1 and Maffei 2. Maffei
17
1 is a giant type E3 elliptical galaxy. Its
stars are mostly old, around 10 billion
years in age. If the view was clear, it
would likely be one of the brightest
galaxies in the northern sky and span
about two-thirds of the Moon’s diam-
GYULBUDAGHIAN’S NEBULA
eter. Despite Maffei 1’s size and mass, This cosmic object is named after Armenian astronomer Armen Gyulbudaghian (pronounced
the presence of a giant black hole in gyool-boo-DAH-ghee-an), who discovered it in 1977. Gyulbudaghian’s Nebula is one of only a
its center has never been detected. few interstellar clouds that change in appearance in a matter of a few months or years, so-
Maffei 2 is a barred spiral that fea- called variable nebulae.
tures two asymmetrical spiral arms. Gyulbudaghian’s Nebula is classified as HH 215, a Herbig-Haro object. Herbig-Haro
Its prominent central bar and lopsided objects are patches of nebulosity around newborn stars. In the case of Gyulbudaghian’s
arms show that the galaxy is under- Nebula, that star is known as PV Cephei. PV Cep is a young, pre-main sequence star sur-
going a burst of star formation in its rounded by a rotating accretion disk of material. As the star spins, it ejects two high-speed
core. This occurs when large quanti- jets of partially ionized gas along its rotational axis. These beams slam into surrounding clouds
ties of gas and dust are forced into of gas and dust.
the center of a galaxy by gravitational PV Cep’s rotational axis is tilted slightly toward Earth, which means that the varying fan-
interactions. shaped nebula that we see is due to a partial clearing in the surrounding dust clouds by the
The two galaxies, along with 16 energy beam on the north side of the star. The south jet is obscured by dark nebulosity.
other galaxies, form the IC 342-Maffei 1 The discovery images taken in 1977 showed that PV Cep had brightened to illuminate the
Group. All lie an average of 10 million fan-shaped reflection nebula just to its northeast. Later observations show that both the star
light-years away. — P.H. and nebula may dim or even disappear entirely due to variations in the star as well as inter-
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UCLA vening dust. At other times, the nebula has been glimpsed in amateur telescopes as small as
10 inches in aperture. — P.H.
16

MAYALL’S OBJECT
Mayall’s Object — found by American astronomer Nicholas Mayall at Lick
Observatory in March 1940 — is a strange-looking sight indeed. Cataloged more
formally in the Morphological Galaxy Catalog as MCG +7–23–19 and in the Atlas of
Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 148, the object resembles a question mark. That shape likely
epitomized Mayall’s confusion as well. Was it a nebula within the Milky Way, or did it
lie beyond? That question remained unanswered for decades.
Technological improvements finally allowed later studies to prove that Mayall’s
Object was actually the carnage left over after two galaxies collided 450 million
light-years away in Ursa Major. As one pierced the other, the aftershock was so
intense that both progenitors were structurally disrupted beyond recognition. Stars
and interstellar matter were first pulled into the center of the pierced galaxy. But
then in an action/reaction effect, everything expanded away to form a ring.
The centralized extension protruding on one side is the remains of the galaxy
that did the piercing — almost like a game of space darts. The gas and dust in the
target galaxy have been pushed outward in surges to form the outer rim, triggering
new star formation along the way. The result is the slow formation of a rarely seen
ring galaxy.
Look closer and you will see a small yellow feature inside the ring to the lower
right of the tail end of the “dart” galaxy, probably the only remains of the target’s
nucleus. — P.H.
18
20
NASA, ESA, THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA)-ESA/HUBBLE COLLABORATION
JOE NAVARA, GLENN CLOUDER, AND RUSSELL DISCOMBE
CRESCENT NEBULA
One of the most striking summertime objects is
the oddly shaped Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) in
Cygnus. William Herschel was first to spot it, back
AND A. EVANS, K. NOLL, AND J. WESTPHAL
in September 1792. He described the sight as “a

double star of the 8th magnitude with a faint …
milky ray joining to it.”
Telescopes equipped with contrast-enhancing
filters showed that Herschel’s “milky ray” curves
around both sides of that star. That unique
appearance — reminiscent of our Moon a few
days before or after the New phase — led to
its nickname, the Crescent Nebula.
However, more sensitive digital images show
the complete picture. Rather than a crescent, they
record a distinctly oval form. In fact, the details in
NGC 1275 ET AL. today’s images are so extensive, they make it dif-
ficult to identify the simpler crescent shape.
At approximately 240 million light- NGC 1275 is also a powerful
At first glance, some might conclude that we
years away, the central portion of emitter of X-rays. At the core of its
are looking at a planetary nebula or possibly a
the Perseus Galaxy Cluster holds active nucleus is a supermassive
supernova remnant. In reality, the Crescent
an estimated 190 individual black hole. Estimated to be equiv-
Nebula is an unusual class of emission nebulae
galaxies — just a part of the alent to 800 million solar masses,
that are byproducts of Wolf-Rayet stars — the
Pisces-Perseus supercluster, which the black hole is feasting on gas
hottest known stars, named after astronomers
includes over 1,000 additional and dust at a furious rate. As
Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet, who discovered
galaxies. The Perseus Cluster is interstellar matter swirls around
the first three.
centered around NGC 1275, a dom- in the accretion disk as it heads
The Wolf-Rayet star at the center of the
inating goliath among galaxies. toward the event horizon and
Crescent Nebula, designated WR 136 (also
Classified as a supermassive its ultimate fate, it heats up due
known as HD 192163), has a surface temperature
elliptical galaxy, NGC 1275 spans to friction and emits X-rays.
of nearly 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit (54,800
more than 100,000 light-years. Filaments of red glowing gas
degrees Celsius). That’s nearly 10 times hotter
Our understanding of this weird — appearing like roots from a
than our Sun.
NASA, ESA, HUBBLE HERITAGE, A. FABIAN
galaxy began in 1943, when Carl strange galactic plant — spread

The nebula we see formed when the star’s
Seyfert included it in his list of gal- out from the core to the outer
fast-moving stellar wind collided with a stream of
axies with active nuclei. It is often edges of the galaxy. Some extend
slower-moving particles ejected from WR 136
referred to as Perseus A, indicating up to 20,000 light-years. These
several hundred thousand years ago. The collision
it is a strong source of radio emis- eerie tendrils are forced outward
produced a glowing nebulous shell and two
19
sions. In fact, NGC 1275 is one of by the central black hole and
shock waves traveling in opposite directions. — P.H.
the strongest radio galaxies in the bound together by magnetic
entire sky. fields. — P.H.
EGG NEBULA
After stars use up all the fusible hydrogen in their cores, the ones that
are up to around three times the mass of our Sun evolve off the main
sequence and undergo two red giant phases. During the second
phase, the star expels its outer layer as a shell of expanding gas,
known as a planetary nebula. Catching a planetary nebula in the act
of birth is difficult to do, since it is so short lived. The phase lasts
perhaps only 2,000 years, the blink of an eye, astronomically speaking.
21
Nonetheless, we have captured this moment.
The aptly named Egg Nebula, lying 3,000 light-years away in the
constellation Cygnus, vibrantly shows us the tremendous forces at
NASA. ESA, WFPC2 SCIENCE TEAM
work while a protoplanetary nebula transitions to a planetary nebula.
Concentric ripples — like those in a still pond after a pebble has been central star is a yellow-white type F (these stars are about 1.0 to 1.4
tossed in — expand away from the central star. The star itself is hid- times the Sun’s mass). Its surface temperature is likely to be
den from our direct view by a perpendicular belt of thick dust, shown around 1,620 degrees Fahrenheit (900 degrees Celsius) hotter than
to be composed largely of carbon, a byproduct of the nuclear fusion our Sun, but not hot enough to ionize the gas clouds that have
inside the core of the star. been expelled. However, eventually the star’s temperature will
Analysis of the starlight scattered by the dust shows that the increase enough to trigger the formation of a planetary nebula. — P.H.
SEYFERT’S SEXTET
When you first hear of a galaxy group referred to as a sextet, you’d
expect to find six close-set galaxies fighting a gravitational tug-of-
war. Well, in this case, you’d be wrong. Seyfert’s Sextet is actually
a quartet, since it contains only four interacting galaxies — plus
one photobomber.
In 1882, Édouard Stephan discovered the primary galaxy, a
bright spiral in the head portion of the split constellation Serpens.
It became known as NGC 6027. Another seven decades passed
before Carl Seyfert uncovered a horde of fainter galaxies huddled
nearby. He wrote of his find in the April 1951 issue of Publications
of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. As was the custom, the
22
NASA AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA) AND R. KNACKE
newly found galaxies were assigned new NGC annex numbers.
Seyfert’s article listed them as NGCs 6027A through E.
Seyfert acknowledged in the article that the group was not
physically made up of six galaxies. Nonetheless, the name stuck.
NGC support his theory, he pointed to
Today, we recognize that spiral galaxy NGC 6027A, lenticular gal-
axy 6027B, and barred spiral 6027C are all coming together with
4319 AND what looked like a luminous
NGC 6027, the most massive of the quartet.
stream of material bridging the
MARKARIAN gap between NGC 4319 and
All are about 190 million light-years away. Eventually they will
meld into a single giant elliptical galaxy, but this is billions of years
205 Mrk 205. Arp’s claim created a
into the future. However, we already see evidence of tidal distor-
furor that lasted for more than
tions in all four systems. In fact, NGC 6027E is not a separate gal-
Located in the constellation two decades.
axy at all, but rather a tidal tail of stars and interstellar matter
Draco, NGC 4319 is a barred spi- To resolve the matter, astron-
dragging behind NGC 6027. The sixth member of the sextet,
ral galaxy seen nearly face-on omers used two methods to find
NGC 6027D, is a face-on barred spiral galaxy seen lying comfort-
from Earth. It is characterized by the distances to these objects.
ably about five times farther away than the rest — 877 million light-
an inner ring structure and mod- First, they examined the objects’
years to be exact. — P.H.
erately tight spiral arms. What is spectra to determine their red-
perhaps most unusual about shifts caused by the expansion
NGC 4319 is how close it appears of the universe — the greater the
to quasar Markarian 205. redshift, the greater the object’s
After studying the pair in 1971, distance. This revealed that the
American astronomer Halton Arp quasar’s redshift far exceeds the
23
concluded that the quasar was galaxy’s redshift.
not a distant background object
NASA, J. ENGLISH (U. MANITOBA), S. HUNSBERGER, S. ZONAK, J. CHARLTON,
Next, they measured how

at all. He believed it may have much of Mrk 205’s ultraviolet
been blasted away from the energy dimmed as it passed
nucleus of NGC 4319 as sort of through NGC 4319’s outer halo
a cosmic cannonball. of interstellar gas. Each tech-
Arp’s strange idea derived nique gave the same answer:
S. GALLAGHER (PSU), AND L. FRATTARE (STSCI)
from his skepticism of both the NGC 4319 is 80 million light-

Big Bang theory and the notion years from Earth, whereas Mrk
that the universe was expanding. 205 is 1 billion light-years away,
He thought that quasars were separated by both space and
caused by other events. To time. — P.H.

24 NGC 6826
As we peer through our telescopes, many of us have
momentarily blinked while trying to view a challeng-
ing object. We don’t expect them to blink back at us.
But 9th-magnitude NGC 6826 in Cygnus does —
hence its popular nickname, the Blinking Planetary.
Of course, it’s not actually blinking at us. The
human eye is responsible for that effect. The center
of the eye’s retina is made up of bright-light recep-
tors, called cones, as well as some low-light sensors
called rods. Together, they allow us to look directly at
stars. To see faint, diffuse objects, we need to look
for them out of the corner of our eyes using averted
vision. Doing so directs a target’s feeble light onto
the peripheral area of the retina, which is rich in rods.
NGC 6826 is a classic example of a double-shell
planetary nebula. Its fainter outer shell surrounds a
brighter inner shell that is directly surrounding the
10th-magnitude central star. When we look directly
at it, we are seeing the progenitor and some of the
brighter nebulosity in the planetary’s inner shell. But
when we use averted vision, we can also make out
the fainter outer shell. Glance back directly and it
disappears, giving the illusion that the oval, eye-
shaped planetary is blinking.
The Blinking Planetary appears to have two
NASA/ESA AND BALICK ET AL.

weird knots of condensed red gas that seem to have
blasted away from the hot central star at a faster
rate than the surrounding nebula. These features
have been dubbed FLIERS (Fast Low-Ionization
Emission Regions). — P.H.
KEENAN’S SYSTEM
Also known as Arp 104 in Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar
Galaxies, this target is the pairing of an elliptical NGC 5216
and barred spiral galaxy NGC 5218. Both were discovered
25
by William Herschel in 1790. A pair of galaxies hardly quali-
fies as “weird,” but what lies between them makes it a
worthy contender.
It wasn’t until 145 years after Herschel’s discovery that
Philip Keenan noticed on a photo taken through the Yerkes
24-inch reflector that “these two apparently well-separated
galaxies are connected by a faint but definite band of
nebulosity.” Even then, Keenan’s discovery went largely
unnoticed until 1958 when the filament stretching between
the two galaxies was rediscovered by astronomers at Lick
and Palomar observatories. Both galaxies lie 17 million light-
years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
The filament that joins them, along with the warped spi-
ral arms in NGC 5218 and an odd comma-shaped exten-
sion seen in NGC 5216, are all the result of a near miss
ADAM BLOCK/MOUNT LEMMON SKYCENTER/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
between the two galaxies that occurred about 200 million

years ago. The slight interaction formed new hot, massive
stars within the filament, making it appear blue. The fila-
ment passes through NGC 5218 and extends beyond it in a
plume almost 46,000 light-years long. From the blue color,
the plume may also be the site of continuing star formation.
This passage also triggered major starburst activity in
NGC 5216, shown by the blue color as well. The galaxy’s
red center suggests that it holds large quantities of cosmic
dust.
Eventually, the two galaxies will circle back toward each
other and continue to make ever closer passes until one
day, they will merge into a single system. — P.H.
NGC 520 this pair of galaxies began colliding
some 300 million years ago. During such
26
Although this deep-sky object is cataloged interactions, few stars collide with other
as NGC 520, it’s actually a pair of interacting stars — on the order of single digits. But
spiral galaxies in the constellation Pisces the the gravitational interaction of the two
Fish. German-born English astronomer systems creates lots of new star-forming
William Herschel discovered it in 1784. activity. It also expels much of the dust
Even a small scope will show its odd and gas that lies between the stars into
shape, which has led amateur astronomers intergalactic space. And, indeed,
to christen it the Flying Ghost. It measures astronomers have located two small tails
4.6' by 1.9' and glows at magnitude 11.4. It (called tidal tails because they’re created
lies roughly 100 million light-years away. via the tidal forces exerted by the
To find it, look about 21/2° south-southwest galaxies) composed of such material.
of the magnitude 4.8 star Mu (μ) Piscium. Interestingly, the larger galaxy is
Through a 6-inch telescope at low power, edge-on to our line of sight, which
you’ll think you’re looking at an edge-on makes it fainter than its smaller, less
spiral. Crank the magnification up to 150x, massive companion. And the whole
however, and the sharp northwest edge will system is also not as bright as expected
pop into view. Through larger instruments, in X-ray wavelengths. Researchers think
the dark lane of dust that divides the two this is because the smaller galaxy didn’t
galaxies becomes visible. have much gas prior to the collision.
Computer simulations have shown that — M.E.B.
3C 273 PURGATHOFER-WEINBERGER 1
Observing 3C 273 is a lot In May 1980, Austrian astronomers Alois Purgathofer and Ronald
like observing Pluto. In both Weinberger discovered a large, faint planetary nebula while
cases, you’ll only see a faint searching Palomar Observatory Sky Survey prints for possible
point of light, but the obser- flare stars. As their first co-discovery of a planetary, it was desig-
vations are meaningful nated Purgathofer-Weinberger 1. This is usually abbreviated
because of what the objects PuWe 1, but also carries the catalog designation PN G158.9+17.8.
are. In the case of 3C 273, This object lies at the far western edge of the constellation
you’re looking at the first Lynx, near that star pattern’s borders with Camelopardalis and
quasar ever discovered, Auriga. With an apparent diameter of 20', it is the second-largest
receiving photons emitted a planetary nebula visible from Earth, surpassed only by the Helix
couple of billion years ago Nebula (NGC 7293) in Aquarius. As a demonstration of its size,
from the maw of a super- it covers 41 percent as much area as the Full Moon.
massive black hole. You can Researchers have measured its brightness in two wave-
ESA/HUBBLE & NASA
find it 31/2° northeast of lengths, those of Hydrogen-alpha (H α) and Oxygen-III (OIII).
27
Zaniah (Eta [η] Virginis). In H α , the magnitude of PuWe 1 is 8.6; in OIII, it falls to 11.2.
It’s also the brightest quasar These magnitudes may
in the sky, glowing softly at seem relatively bright,
magnitude 12.9.
But that’s just its apparent magnitude. Because it lies some
2.4 billion light-years away, its absolute magnitude (the brightness
it would have if seen from a distance of 32.6 light-years) is –26.7,
28 but remember that
they’re the total inte-
grated magnitudes of
a sphere two-thirds the
the same as the Sun’s apparent brightness. A bit of math, then, apparent diameter of
shows that 3C 273 is 4 trillion times as bright as the Sun. the Moon. The central
The designation 3C 273 comes from the fact that it was the star, a white dwarf, is
273rd object cataloged in the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio also quite faint. The best
Sources, which was published in 1959. The quasar lies at the center estimates peg its visual
of a giant elliptical galaxy, which has a mass estimated at 200 bil- magnitude at 15.5.
lion times that of the Sun. And while amateurs using large scopes Although the nebula’s
have a chance to spot 3C 273, there’s no hope of seeing the galaxy, low surface brightness
DON GOLDMAN
which, at magnitude 16, is a lot fainter. makes it nearly impos-

This object is an example of an active galactic nucleus. At the sible to detect visually
center of such objects, a supermassive black hole accelerates gas through amateur instru-
and dust to speeds near that of light before they disappear to ments, it’s not difficult to
become part of the black hole. 3C 273’s supermassive black hole photograph. Excellent images of it have been obtained through
is some 900 million times as massive as the Sun. The process of telescopes with apertures as small as 5 inches.
accretion also produces a jet of tremendous energy. This quasar’s PuWe 1 lies some 1,300 light-years away, making it one of the
jet is approximately 200,000 light-years long. On images taken nearest of the approximately 1,500 planetary nebulae in the Milky
through large telescopes, its angular size is 23". — M.E.B. Way. It has a true diameter of about 4 light-years. Astronomers
think that while the cloud of gas will continue to expand, its outer
edge has pretty much reached the limit at which the radiation
from the central star can still excite the atoms and cause them to
glow. — M.E.B.
NASA, ESA, HUBBLE; PROCESSING: WILLIAM OSTLING
30
NGC 3190 nucleus. It broadens in both direc-
tions as you look away from the
GALAXY GROUP center. With a diameter of 75,000
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/MARK BOOTH
light-years, NGC 3190 is slightly
You’ll find this grouping of galaxies smaller than the Milky Way.
2° north-northwest of the 2nd- The brightest galaxy in Hickson EPSILON ERIDANI
magnitude star Algieba (Gamma 44 is the elliptical NGC 3193, which
[γ] Leonis). It carries a couple of glows at magnitude 10.8 and has a Humanity’s story of Epsilon (ε) Eridani (Ran) is a
common names. One is the Gamma diameter of 2'. An 8-inch telescope case of life imitating art. Shining at 4th magnitude,
Leonis Group because of its near- will reveal a wide, evenly illuminated Epsilon Eridani lies only 10.5 light-years distant,
ness to Algieba. The other is Hickson core surrounded by a thin halo. making it the third closest naked-eye star. At
44, the brightest group in Canadian The final two objects in this quar- 800 million years young, this Sun-like star is almost
astronomer Paul Hickson’s catalog tet are the magnitude 12.0 barred the same age as our solar system was when life
of 100 compact galaxy groups. spiral NGC 3185 (11' to the south- first took root on Earth. Knowledge of this fact likely
Hickson 44 lies approximately west of NGC 3190) and the magni- inspired science-fiction writers ever since the 1960s
100 million light-years away. tude 12.9 spiral NGC 3187 (5' to the to imagine the star hosting habitable worlds.
Spiral NGC 3190, the largest gal- northwest). Such imaginings started to enter the realm of
axy in Hickson 44, appears more than Galactic astronomers theorize reality in 1998, when astronomers revealed that the
twice as long as it is wide (4.1' by 1.6') that compact galaxy groups like star is surrounded by a young belt of comets —
and glows at magnitude 11.2. Its cen- Hickson 44 eventually merge into a similar to our solar system’s Kuiper Belt — whose
tral region is bright and long. Through single object, probably a giant ellipti- more jagged appearance may be caused by a pos-
a 12-inch telescope at 250x, you’ll see cal galaxy. Computer simulations sible planet at its edge. These findings were fol-
a dust lane south of the nucleus. show that this will happen in about lowed by the discovery of a near-Jupiter-sized body
The lane is least apparent near the a billion years. — M.E.B. (Epsilon Eridani b, orbiting with a period of 7.4 years
at a distance 3.5 times that of Earth from the Sun)
and two asteroid belts (one interior to the planet
and one much farther out). The inner belt is at
29
about the same location as the asteroid belt in our
solar system, while the second lies around where
Uranus orbits our Sun. The data also infer that an
unconfirmed second planet may lie near the outer
asteroid belt.
Epsilon Eridani, then, holds the distinction of
being the closest planetary system around a star
similar to the young Sun and is a prime location to
research how planets form around Sun-like stars.
And while its Jupiter-sized world may not have the
conditions for life, any satellites orbiting it might.
It appears the science-fiction fever over Epsilon
Eridani has not waned, as the star has been the
SERGEY TRUDOLYUBOV
target of SETI Institute searches, while some

dreamers have suggested the star as a possible
destination for future space travelers. — S.J.O.
LALANDE 21185
French astronomer Jérôme Lalande, working at the Paris
Observatory, first cataloged the star that would be known
as Lalande 21185 in 1801, in Histoire céleste française.
The name/number association came about in 1847 when
English astronomer Francis Baily (of Baily’s beads fame)
32
listed the catalog’s stars in numerical order.
To find it, point your binoculars or telescope 41/2°
northwest of Alula Borealis (Nu [ν] Ursae Majoris). Don’t
expect to see more than a magnitude 7.5 point of light ESA/HUBBLE & NASA
with a slight orange hue. That said, Lalande 21185 is the

brightest red dwarf in the northern half of the sky. M15 AND Finding M15 is easy if you use
Its current distance of 8.3 light-years ranks it as the PEASE 1 Theta (θ) and Epsilon (ε) Pegasi
fourth-closest star system to our own. Due to its motion as pointers. Just draw a line from
through space combined with our Sun’s, it will be closest Globular cluster M15 in Pegasus Theta through Epsilon and con-
to us in 20,000 years. At that time, Lalande 21185 will lie is the “hey, let me show you this tinue another 4°.
only 4.65 light-years away. one” autumn object for amateur At magnifications around 100x,
As you’d expect for a red dwarf, Lalande 21185 is a tiny astronomers north of the equator. even a 4-inch scope will resolve
star. Its diameter and mass are only 39 percent that of our It’s also known as NGC 7078. dozens of stars around M15’s strik-
Sun’s. Most of its energy is emitted as infrared radiation M15 lies some 34,000 light- ingly bright core. Look for the
(heat), so its brightness is only 1/200 that of the Sun. And years from Earth and appears 18' chains of stars that wind out from
as a spectral type M red dwarf, its surface temperature across. It has a true diameter of its central region. Through this
— 5,930 degrees Fahrenheit (3,280 degrees Celsius) — 175 light-years and contains more size telescope, these star patterns
is much less than the Sun’s 9,930 F (5,500 C). than 100,000 stars. Among them cause some observers to describe
In 2017, a team of astronomers at the Keck are two X-ray sources, designated M15 as slightly oval.
Observatory in Hawaii announced the discovery of an Messier 15 X-1 and X-2. This clus- If you have an 11-inch or larger
exoplanet with a period just under 10 days. That number ter outshines our Sun by more telescope at your disposal, you
has since been upgraded than 320,000 times. can try for the challenge object
31
to 12.95 days and was From a dark site, sharp-eyed inside M15: Pease 1 (circled). In
confirmed by observa- observers can spot this magni- 1928, American astronomer
tions from the Calar Alto tude 6.3 globular with their naked Francis Gladheim Pease
Observatory in Spain eyes. If you try to find it this way, discovered this object — the first
in 2020. Further study don’t be confused by the magni- planetary nebula to be found
showed the planet has tude 6.1 star only ¼° to the east. inside a globular cluster — on
a mass equal to about A telescope will confirm your a photographic plate taken with
three Earths. sighting because even the small- the 100-inch Hooker Telescope at
A second exoplanet est will show that M15 looks fuzzy. Mount Wilson Observatory. Use
ANTHONY AYIOMAMITIS
in the system was con- Its relatively large apparent size an eyepiece that yields 200x or
firmed in 2021 with a means the cluster covers nearly more and a nebula filter at a dark
period of around eight one-third as much sky as the site with good seeing. Don’t forget
years. — M.E.B. Full Moon. the finder chart. — M.E.B.
33
HIND’S VARIABLE NEBULA
This emission nebula in the constellation Taurus the Bull, cataloged
as NGC 1554/55, combines two objects in one. At least, it used to. ADAM BLOCK/MOUNT LEMMON SKYCENTER/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Observers call NGC 1555 Hind’s Variable Nebula. They call

NGC 1554 Struve’s Lost Nebula, a name that pretty much says it all.
Both common names refer to the 19th-century astronomers who
discovered the respective objects. British astronomer John Russell
Hind discovered NGC 1555 in 1852. It remained visible for a few
years, but then faded from view. Russian astronomer Otto Wilhelm
von Struve subsequently observed the nebula, but it had again dis-
appeared by 1868. When examining the region early that year,
Struve found another small nebula. He gave its position as 4' to the
west-southwest of T Tauri, the variable star whose outflow interact-
ing with the interstellar medium created the nebula. Subsequent
observations showed no object.
In 1890, American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard found
a position error for the star T Tauri and suggested that other astron-
omers had been looking in the wrong place for NGC 1554. In March identify the star SAO 93887, which glows at magnitude 8.4. From
of that year, using the 36-inch refractor at Lick Observatory, he there, move 5' to the northeast where you’ll find T Tauri. Although
glimpsed a faint nebula at the position he had calculated, along it’s a variable star, it usually shines at magnitude 9.6. NGC 1555
with NGC 1555. No observer has seen NGC 1554 since. appears as a faint wisp of nebulosity only 1' across near T Tauri. Use
To start your search for Hind’s Variable Nebula, head 1.7° west- the largest telescope you have access to, a high-power eyepiece,
northwest of magnitude 3.5 Epsilon (ε) Tauri. Use a finder chart to and a nebula filter, which will dim the star a bit. — M.E.B.
THE
HERCULES
GALAXY
CLUSTER
If your observing site is dark
and you have access to at
least a 14-inch telescope, do
yourself a favor and target the
Hercules Galaxy Cluster. Its
main official designation is
Abell 2151, a member of a cata-
log of 2,712 rich northern clus-
ters of galaxies originally
published by American astron-
omer George O. Abell. Later
inclusions of southern clusters
brought the total to 4,073. A
true deep-sky object, Abell 2151
lies 500 million light-years
away.
One of the coolest aspects
DOUGLAS J. STRUBLE
of this cluster is that nearly half

of its 200-plus members are
spirals. And several of those are
interacting with other members
of the cluster.
34
If your scope has a go-to
drive, target the brightest mem-
ber, elliptical galaxy NGC 6047.
Without go-to, locate the 5th-
magnitude star Kappa (κ)
Herculis. Then move 1° north- SIMEIS 147
west, and your field of view
should capture several dozen Take one look at supernova remnant Simeis 147 and you’ll immediately know why it’s called the
visible galaxies. Spaghetti Nebula. It lies in Taurus the Bull, near that constellation’s northern border with Auriga. In
A finder chart is a must if fact, its position is about 6° north of an even more famous supernova remnant, the Crab Nebula (M1).
you want to identify the faint A team of Russian astronomers led by G.A. Shajn and V.E. Hase, working at the Crimean
patches of light. Seven of the Astrophysical Observatory, discovered Simeis 147 in 1952. The camera they used had a field of
galaxies in Abell 2151 are view of nearly 3°, and the nebula filled all of it. That would make its apparent diameter six times
brighter than 14th magnitude: greater than that of the Full Moon. Because it is so huge, it’s not possible to see the entire nebula
NGC 6047 (magnitude 13.5), visually. Amateur astronomers with access to a 20-inch or larger telescope, a dark site with terrific
NGC 6061 (13.6), IC 1194A (13.6), seeing (atmospheric steadiness), and an Oxygen-III filter might glimpse some brighter regions at its
NGC 6055 (13.7), IC 1185 (13.9), southern edge. Astroimagers with wide-field camera setups, however, can capture striking pictures
NGC 6045 (13.9), and of it with relative ease.
NGC 6056 (13.9). Another catalog identifier you might encounter is Sharpless 2–240. American astronomer Steward
The one amateur astrono- Sharpless found it on photographic plates of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. He published his
mers enjoy viewing the most is second catalog, which con-
NGC 6045. If you look carefully tained 313 such objects, in
35
at its eastern tip, you’ll find the 1959. Simeis 147 was the
magnitude 15.5 lenticular galaxy 240th entry.
PGC 84720. To most observers, Current estimates place
this combo looks like a hockey the supernova remnant at a
stick or the letter L, which may distance of some 3,000 light-
be normal, flipped, or reversed years. If that’s correct, the
depending on your scope’s diameter of the Spaghetti
optics. Nebula would be about
In addition to a large tele- 160 light-years.
scope, to successfully view this Researchers think the
galaxy cluster you’ll need to use explosion of the supergiant
eyepieces that give magnifica- star that created this object
tions of 250x and more. High happened approximately
powers will increase the con- 40,000 years ago. The core
trast between the galaxies and of that star is now a pulsar (a
the background sky. Also rapidly rotating neutron star)
remember that the diameter of designated PSR J0538+2817.
Abell 2151 is more than 1°. So Radio astronomers have
YANN SAINTY
move your field of view around detected the large amount

to see every galaxy visible. of radio radiation that the
— M.E.B. object produces. — M.E.B.
36 ESO; ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: VST/OMEGACAM LOCAL GROUP SURVEY
WLM WLM lies in the constellation Cetus the hot new stars, astronomers think WLM
Whale. It has an apparent size of 11.5' by is still in the star-formation stage. These
The barred irregular galaxy Wolf-Lundmark- 4.2' and glows at magnitude 11.2, so you regions, mainly in the southern half of the
Melotte (WLM) is a member of the Local can see it from a dark site through an galaxy, range from 20 to 100 light-years
Group of galaxies. This collection of more 8-inch telescope. To find it, use an eye- across.
than 100 stellar systems includes the Milky piece that will give a 1/2° field of view, and In 1994, American astronomer Andrew
Way and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). point it a bit more than 10° west-northwest Dolphin, now at the University of Arizona,
German astronomer Max Wolf discovered of Diphda (Beta [β] Ceti). Keep in mind used the Hubble Space Telescope to show
WLM in 1909. In 1926, Swedish astronomer that WLM has a low surface brightness. that around half of all the star formation in
Knut Lundmark and British astronomer A good strategy for revealing it against the this galaxy occurred roughly 13 billion
Philibert Melotte determined its nature. surrounding darkness is to center it (or the years ago. Because it’s at the edge of the
It lies some 3.2 million light-years away and position you think it’s at) and tap the tele- Local Group, WLM has avoided encoun-
is considered a low-mass galaxy. Of course, scope’s tube ever so slightly. ters with other galaxies. That makes it
that’s relative. Its total mass is on the order Because telescopes sensitive to ultra- valuable to researchers to compare with
of 430 million solar masses. violet radiation have revealed clumps of other nearby galaxies. — M.E.B.
NGC 404
37
Elliptical galaxy NGC 404 lies in the constellation Andromeda,
glowing at magnitude 10.3 with a diameter of 6.1'. It carries two
other names: Mirach’s Ghost and the Lost Pearl Galaxy. And
though the galaxy is well placed for viewing on Halloween night,
that’s not how it got the first moniker.
Amateur astronomers call it Mirach’s Ghost because it lies only
6.8' from 2nd-magnitude Mirach (Beta [β] Andromedae). That
makes it easy to locate but, as you can imagine, a 10th-magnitude
galaxy next to a star that bright is pretty difficult to see.
Astronomers classify NGC 404 as a lenticular galaxy (or S0
galaxy). This type has the disk shape of a spiral galaxy but no spi-
ral arms. Several teams of researchers have pegged its distance
at 10 million light-years from Earth, just outside the Local Group
of galaxies.
In 2016, while examining images he took in 2010 and 2013,
JOHN CHUMACK
Italian amateur astronomer Giuseppe Donatiello discovered a

dwarf spheroidal galaxy that may be a satellite of NGC 404 (dubbed
Mirach’s Goblin). The uncertainty lies in its distance measurements,
which stand between 8.1 million and 11.4 million light-years.
To observe Mirach’s Ghost, use high magnification to increase As to NGC 404’s second common name, Astronomy Contributing
the contrast (and the apparent separation) between the galaxy and Editor Stephen James O’Meara christened it the Lost Pearl Galaxy.
the star. NGC 404 is round with a brighter center. The glare from “Lost” is because some star atlases don’t plot this object, because
Mirach is troublesome, but there’s really no detail to be seen in the printed image of Mirach overlaps it. As for “pearl,” he says it looks
the galaxy. like a loose pearl rolling across the deck of a pirate ship. — M.E.B.

BARNARD’S E
If you’re an amateur astronomer who
enjoys binocular observing, Barnard’s E
has to be one of your favorite objects.
These two dark nebulae are recorded in
American astronomer Edward Emerson
Barnard’s famous catalog of such objects
as numbers 142 and 143.
It’s easy to find the E in the northern
summer constellation Aquila the Eagle.
Just center 3rd-magnitude Tarazed
(Gamma [γ] Aquilae) in your binoculars.
Barnard’s E lies 1.6° west-northwest of
the star.
38
Barnard 143 (B143) is the darker of the
ALAN DYER
two nebulae. Its most visible part is a nar-
row bar about ¼° long, which stretches
east to west. A second bar of the same
length connects at its east end and heads of Barnard’s E as dark nebulae — objects combination of dust and really cold gas
northward. At the end of that bar is a that emit no light and reflect no starlight. — material that can one day form stars.
third, which parallels the first one. The We see them only because they lie in To do so, the temperature of the hydrogen
combination of these three bars forms a front of more distant, bright backgrounds in dark nebulae must be just 18 degrees
C-shape whose open end points west. along the same line of sight from Earth. Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) above
Barnard 142 (B142) lies just south of If you view Barnard’s E from a dark site, absolute zero or less. If it’s warmer, the
B143. This bar isn’t as dark as B143, so it’s you’ll see it silhouetted before many tens atoms in the cloud will be moving too fast
harder to see. of thousands of unresolvable stars. to merge when they collide, and stars
Astronomers classify the components Dark nebulae actually consist of a won’t form. — M.E.B.
THE NECKLACE NEBULA

39 The object below is a planetary nebula in the small
northern constellation Sagitta the Arrow. Cataloged as
either IPHASX J194359.5+170901 or PN G054.2–03.4,
it’s a lot easier to refer to it by its common name, the
Necklace Nebula. Although you won’t see it visually
even through the largest amateur telescopes, you can
find its position by looking 1° east-southeast of magni-
tude 4.4 Beta (β) Sagittae.
Researchers in the Canary Islands, Spain, discov-
ered it in 2005 in data acquired by the Isaac Newton
Telescope Photometric H-alpha Survey. The Necklace
Nebula lies about 15,000 light-years away and has a
diameter of about 2 light-years.
This planetary nebula formed thanks to a pair of
Sun-like stars in a close binary system at the center.
One of the stars evolved a bit faster than the other,
becoming a giant. About 10,000 years ago, the giant
star expanded to a point where it completely engulfed
its companion, called a “common envelope.” But it
didn’t consume it. Because the outer layers of the giant
were composed of such thin gas, the Sun-like star con-
tinued to revolve around the center of its captor. This
dramatically increased the giant’s rotational speed.
Eventually, the larger star spun so fast that a large per-
centage of its outer atmosphere expanded into space,
producing the planetary nebula.
In this case, most of the gas flew outward along
the giant star’s equator, producing the ring we now
see. The bright spots along the ring are regions of
ESA/HUBBLE & NASA, K. NOLL
denser gas.
The Sun-like star continues to orbit the core of the
giant about every 27 hours. And the two stars are close,
separated by only about 2 million miles (3.2 million km).
— M.E.B.
WILD’S TRIPLET
Here we have what was once thought
to be a trio of interacting spiral galax-
ies located in the constellation Virgo
DESI LEGACY IMAGING SURVEYS/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA

the Maiden. The three galaxies are
PGC 36733, which glows at magni-
tude 13.6, PGC 36723 (magnitude 14.1),
and PGC 36742 (magnitude 14.8). (The
designations come from the Catalogue
of Principal Galaxies, published in
1989.)
Commonly known as Wild’s Triplet,
this group is named for Paul Wild, the
British-born Australian astronomer
who discovered them in the 1950s. It
later was cataloged as the 248th
object in American astronomer Halton
C. Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, pub-
lished in 1966.
Originally, Wild, Arp, and other
astronomers assumed that all three
41
galaxies were interacting gravitation- (Delta [δ] Leonis). It spans an area 5' by 2'.
ally. But recent studies have shown
COPELAND’S The seven galaxies that make up the Septet
that only the brightest two galaxies are SEPTET are magnitude 15.2 NGC 3745, magni-
interacting, connected by a 200,000- tude 14.0 NGC 3746, magnitude 14.8
light-year-long bridge of material. In 1874, Scottish astronomer Ralph Copeland NGC 3748, magnitude 15.0 NGC 3750,
The bridge is composed of gas, was an assistant to William Parsons, Earl of magnitude 15.0 NGC 3751, magnitude 14.5
dust, and stars, and is usually referred Rosse. In April, while scanning the constella- NGC 3753, and magnitude 14.3 NGC 3754.
to as a tidal tail. Such features form tion Leo with Parsons’ 72-inch speculum- Note that the magnitudes for these galaxies
when the gravity and tidal forces of mirror reflector — the Leviathan of vary somewhat depending on the source
two or more galaxies pull material from Parsonstown — Copeland was the first to you reference.
the outer regions of the objects. The spot this compact galaxy group. When he One key to successfully observing
tail is most impressive when two spiral wrote a description for the New General Copeland’s Septet is patience, especially
galaxies merge because these contain Catalogue, he described five of the galaxies through telescopes smaller than 18 inches in
lots of gas and dust. as “pretty bright.” Well, he was using a aperture. Spotting all seven can take a while,
The pair lies some 200 million light- 72-inch scope. And although you don’t need but identifying them is easy if you’ve first
years away. The smaller spiral below such an optical behemoth to view these printed out a finder chart. Another key is let-
the central bridge is much farther than objects, you will need at least a 14-inch ting the group climb to its highest point in the
that. Astronomers estimate that in instrument, perfect seeing (atmospheric sky. A third depends on your site’s seeing. If
about a billion years, the two interact- stability), and a dark site. the stars overhead are twinkling, move on to
ing galaxies will combine to form a Also known as Hickson 57, this group lies your next target and try for the Septet another
single spiral. 5.7° east-northeast of magnitude 2.6 Zosma night. — M.E.B.
If you’d like to try to observe Wild’s
Triplet, point the largest scope you can
use 53/4° due south of Zavijava (Beta
[β] Virginis). Don’t use any filter;
galaxies are full-spectrum objects, and
a filter will simply cut the overall
42
brightness. — M.E.B.
MIKE SELBY/WARREN KELLER
40

ZWICKY’S NECKLACE
This distant ring of galaxies is the 388th entry in volume 8 of the Catalogue of
Galaxies and of Clusters of Galaxies compiled by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky.
As such, it’s referred to as VIII ZW 388. But astronomers (especially amateurs) often
refer to it as Zwicky’s Necklace.
The brightest member of this group (the galaxy in the “handle” of the necklace)
is LEDA 3110345. It glows at magnitude 14.9. The next brightest galaxy, just below
LEDA 3110345 in this image, is LEDA 1142006, which glows slightly fainter at
magnitude 15.9. The faintest member of the Necklace visible in this image, LEDA
4540064, scrapes the bottom of the scale at magnitude 19.1. That’s nearly 175,000
times fainter than the average human eye can see at night. Perhaps an amateur
telescope with a 40-inch mirror could reveal the faintest one. If you have such an
instrument, you’ll find Zwicky’s Necklace a bit more than 31/2° southeast of
magnitude 4.3 Tau (τ) Virginis.
This object was discovered more than four decades ago, but little is known
about it. It contains at least 10 galaxies arranged in a ring (or necklace). The old-
est image of it was taken
in 1955 by the first
43 Palomar Observatory Sky

Survey. The NASA/IPAC
44
Extragalactic Database,
normally a font of valu-
able information, con-
tains almost nothing ALBERTO PISABARRO
about it.
Zwicky’s description,
published in a 1975 paper THE COMA STAR
he wrote with Wallace L. CLUSTER
DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY - STSCI/NASA, COLORED & HEALPIXED BY CDS
W. Sargent and Charles

T. Kowal, reads: “Four The Coma Star Cluster, also known as Melotte 111
red spherical (stellar or and Collinder 256, is an open star cluster that lies
fluffy) compacts sur- in Coma Berenices, a faint northern constellation
rounded by seven addi- with only three stars brighter than magnitude 4.5.
tional compacts within Look toward the constellation’s northwest corner
circle of 7 minutes of arc. for the yellow star Gamma (γ) Comae Berenices.
Individual magnitudes When you find it, you’ve found the Coma Star
from 16.8 to 19.3.” Cluster. Gamma isn’t part of it, however, but
Based on the redshift rather a foreground star some 170 light-years
of the group, Zwicky’s away. The cluster is about 100 light-years more
Necklace probably lies distant.
some 2 billion light-years British astronomer Philibert Jacques Melotte
away. — M.E.B. made it the 111th entry in a catalog of star clusters
published in 1915. It wasn’t until 1938, however,
that astronomers confirmed that it is a true physi-
cal grouping.
MERRILL’S STAR NEBULA The Coma Star Cluster glows at a relatively
bright magnitude 1.8. It contains roughly 40 stars
Merrill’s Star is a high-velocity Wolf-Rayet star discovered in the constella- between magnitudes 5 and 10. About a dozen rise
tion Sagitta the Arrow in 1938 by American astronomer Paul W. Merrill. As above naked-eye visibility. Because this object
a Wolf-Rayet star — a kind of massive star with powerful winds — it carries spans more than 4°, you’ll need optics with a wide
the designation WR 124. Of stars in the Milky Way, it has one of the highest field of view to see all the stars simultaneously.
known radial velocities: about 450,000 mph (720,000 km/h). The star is Start by using binoculars with apertures of 50mm
ever-so-slightly variable (its brightness changes by only 0.08 magnitude), or larger, and then switch to your telescope and
so it’s also called QR Sagittae. select your lowest-power eyepiece.
Around the star is a planetary nebula cataloged as M1–67 and This cluster’s two common names — Ariadne’s
Sharpless 2–80. The extreme stellar wind of Merrill’s Star propels the gas Hair and Thisbe’s Veil — are rooted in antiquity.
outward into space at a speed of 93,000 mph (150,000 km/h). Astronomers The Greek mathematician Eratosthenes wrote
estimate that the star is losing about 1/10,000 the mass of the Sun each year. that the stars represented the hair of the mytho-
Currently, the diameter of the nebula is 6 light-years. Astronomers think logical figure Ariadne, daughter of King Minos
that the planetary nebula formed about 20,000 years ago. of Crete. At the time, however, this cluster was
part of Leo. Ptolemy III renamed it for his wife
NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI, WEBB ERO PRODUCTION TEAM
In 2020, the Gaia Early Data Release 3 put the distance to Merrill’s Star
at around 21,000 light-years. That would mean that the star is about Berenice II, who once sacrificed her hair as a
500,000 times brighter than the Sun. votive offering.
The nebula stands out well because WR 124 has a surface temperature Thisbe’s Veil is a reference to Ovid’s
of 80,000 degrees Fahrenheit (44,400 degrees Celsius). That means most Metamorphoses. It recounts the myth of Pyramus
of its energy is emitted as ultraviolet light, which excites the atoms in the and Thisbe, two lovers who committed suicide
expanding gas cloud. Astronomers think WR 124’s diameter is about 12 due to a misunderstanding. In honor of their
times that of the Sun and that it contains a mass equal to roughly 20 Suns. mutual devotion, Jupiter placed Thisbe’s veil in
Spectroscopic study reveals WR 124’s composition is only 15 percent the sky. — M.E.B.
hydrogen. Compare that to our Sun (and, indeed, most of the stars in
space), which is made up of 75 percent hydrogen. — M.E.B. WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 25
LEO 1 spheroidals. Most of its stars seem to have
formed between 2 billion and 6 billion years
As you might guess, Leo I lies in the con- ago. And no stars have formed in the past
stellation Leo the Lion. This deep-sky target billion years because around that time, Leo I
is also known as UGC 5470, PGC 29488, made a close approach to the Milky Way,
and the Regulus Dwarf. It’s an example of a which may have stripped away all the
dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Such objects are remaining gas available for star formation.
faint, have little dust, and are not forming Leo I is easy to find but difficult to
new stars. The vast majority are satellites observe. It lies 20' north of Regulus (Alpha
45
orbiting larger galaxies. More than 30 of the [α] Leonis). Unfortunately, the glare from
59 satellites (any galaxy within 1.4 million that magnitude 1.3 star can hide Leo I,
light-years) of the Milky Way are dwarf whose magnitude is 11.2. And it appears
spheroidal galaxies. KFIR SIMON even dimmer because its light is spread over
Leo I lies some 830,000 light-years an area measuring 10' by 7'. To increase your
away, which makes it the Milky Way’s fourth 1950 while examining a photographic plate chances of spotting it, place Regulus just
most distant satellite. It has a diameter on taken by the 48-inch Schmidt camera at outside of your eyepiece’s field of view to the
the order of 2,000 light-years and a mass of Palomar Observatory. south. Try a variety of magnifications and
roughly 25 million Suns. American astrono- Astronomers think Leo I may be tap the scope’s tube gently. Look for a faint
mer Albert George Wilson discovered it in the youngest of the Milky Way’s dwarf glow moving slightly back and forth. — M.E.B.
THE MEDUSA NEBULA

Observers of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter sky can point their tele-
scopes toward the not-so-frightening visage of the Medusa Nebula, also
cataloged as Abell 21 and Sharpless 2–274. This object’s common name
comes from the braided filaments of glowing hydrogen that, in astroim-
ages, resemble the Gorgon Medusa’s snakelike hair.
Originally thought to be a supernova remnant for more than a decade
after its discovery, this object is now known to be a planetary nebula.
46
American astronomer George O. Abell found it in 1955 while conducting
a survey for such objects. Abell 21 lies in the constellation Gemini the
Twins near the border with Canis Minor. In fact, one good way to find it
ESO/DIGITIZED SKY SESO/DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY 2; ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: DAVIDE DE MARTIN is to look 5° due north of Gomeisa (Beta [β] Canis Minoris).
The Medusa Nebula glows at magnitude 10.3, but that brightness is a
BARNARD’S STAR bit misleading. Its diameter is 10', which makes its surface brightness low.
Indeed, it’s tough to spot through an 8-inch telescope unless sky con-
Barnard’s Star is a magnitude 9.5 star moving almost due ditions are ideal. Observers describe a fat arc of nebulous material with
north against the stars of Ophiuchus at a rate of 1° every 351 numerous dark gaps. A triangular region at its northern end and a circular
years. This, the highest proper motion known of any star, is due region due south are the brightest areas. Step up to a 16-inch telescope
to a combination of factors: The star lies less than 6 light-years to get a really good look. An Oxygen-III filter will help.
away (the next closest star to our Sun after the Alpha Centauri Astronomers classify the central star of the planetary nebula as a pre-
system) and it is moving toward us at 68 miles per second degenerate star or a PG 1159 star. The latter designation comes from the
(110 km/s), indicating a total velocity of about 89 miles per Palomar-Green survey of ultraviolet-excess stellar objects. PG 1159–035
second (143 km/s). in Virgo was the first of these stars to be discovered. Such an object is
Edward Emerson Barnard discovered the star in 1916, while changing from being a planetary’s central star, actively shedding material,
comparing images he had taken in 1894 and 1916 with a blink into a white dwarf. — M.E.B.
comparator. This apparatus allows two photographic plates of
the same part of the sky to be compared quickly in succession.
For decades, astronomers have been scratching their
47
heads over a wobble that Barnard’s Star exhibits as it moves
across the sky. Some astronomers claimed the wobble is due
to a gravitational tug-of-war between the star and planetary
companions. But to date, observations have failed to reveal any
large Jupiter- or brown-dwarf-sized objects, down to a limit of
about 0.4 Jupiter mass. One 2018 study claimed that an object
three times the mass of Earth was found; however, this was
considered a false positive. Although the idea of planets orbit-
ing Barnard’s Star is fading from view, a final verdict in this
case has not been reached.
Like Proxima Centauri, Barnard’s Star is a red dwarf, pos-
sibly an old disk star that formed before our galaxy became
enriched with heavy elements. Barnard’s Star shines brightly
enough to be spied through the smallest of telescopes. It will
pass closest to Earth (3.9 light-years) in just under 10,000
years. By that time, the star’s proper motion will have
increased, and its brightness will have grown significantly. — S.J.O.
DOUGLAS J. STRUBLE

48 MARTIN BRACKEN
IC 443 actual diameter approximately 70 to see what’s really going on because a

light-years. giant molecular cloud between us and IC
The supernova remnant cataloged as IC In 2015, data from the Chandra X-ray 443 is absorbing lots of the X-rays and vis-
443 and Sharpless 2–248 is more com- Observatory revealed what may be the ible light the object is producing.
monly known as the Jellyfish Nebula. It lies remnant of the supernova that created The structure of IC 443 has been heav-
in the constellation Gemini the Twins. IC IC 443: On the nebula’s southern edge, ily influenced by its surroundings. In the
443 isn’t small. It has a diameter of 50', it found a pulsar (a rotating neutron star) southeast part of the nebula, the super-
which means it covers 2.8 times as much with the imposing designation nova’s blast wave is interacting with a
area as the Full Moon. Because it is so J061705.3+222127. dense molecular cloud. The cloud has
large and diffuse, it’s a much better target However, researchers have also discov- slowed down the wave so that it’s now
for imagers than for visual observers. ered that IC 443 is a weak X-ray source moving between 67,000 and 89,000 mph
Although astronomers know that whose light is produced as electrons in (108,000 and 144,000 km/h).
this object was once a massive star the surrounding gas are released by heat Toward the northeast part of the nebula,
that exploded as a supernova, it’s been generated from a central neutron star’s however, the blast wave is hitting a cloud of
tough to pin down when that happened. infrared emission. This differs from many hydrogen that is much less dense. There,
Estimates range between 3,000 and supernova remnants whose X-ray emis- it’s moving at between 180,000 and
30,000 years ago. It lies some 5,000 light- sion comes from the wind generated by a 220,000 mph (290,000 and 360,000 km/h).
years from Earth, which would make its pulsar, rather than its heat. But it’s difficult — M.E.B.
Visible to the naked eye
SKY THIS MONTH Visible with binoculars

Visible with a telescope
THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S CHANGING LANDSCAPE AS IT APPEARS IN EARTH’S SKY.

BY MARTIN RATCLIFFE AND ALISTER LING
The rocky planets congregate in 10. Their constantly changing

the predawn sky to kick off the first
month of 2024. Here, Venus lies
locations are fascinating to fol-
highest (above the star Regulus), low from night to night.
while Mars and brighter Mercury Early on the evening of
are below the Moon. ALAN DYER
Jan. 10, observers might spot
tiny Tethys transiting the disk
is gone before 7:30 p.m. on of Saturn shortly after 7:20 p.m.
Jan. 31. Your best view of the CST. Its shadow follows about
narrowing rings will be as soon 15 minutes after the moon
as you pick the planet up out of begins its transit. This transit is
the darkening twilight. After best observed from the Midwest
an hour you will quickly lose to Pacific Coast. For the eastern
Saturn in the haze. half of the country, a second
Your scope will reveal the Tethys transit is visible early in
planet’s disk, spanning nearly the evening on Jan. 12, begin-
16" on Jan. 1. It shaves off ning just before 5:40 p.m. EST.
almost 1" by Jan. 31, as the Iapetus reaches its fainter
distance to Saturn increases. (near 12th magnitude) eastern
The rings are tilted by 9° to our elongation Jan. 6, when its
line of sight, providing a stun- darker hemisphere faces earth-
ning view. ward. Its orbit carries it closer
Get your last views of Titan to Saturn until Jan. 26, when it
before the planet moves into reaches inferior conjunction 27"
conjunction with the Sun. north of the disk. It’s a great
You’ll find Saturn’s brightest time to spot this enigmatic
moon shining at magnitude 8.8. moon, which should be glowing
It stands roughly north of the near 11th magnitude.
planet Jan. 13 and 29 and Neptune stands about 20°
roughly south Jan. 5 and 21. east of Saturn along the ecliptic
Three more moons, easily spot- and sets soon after 8 p.m. local
ted in small telescopes, flit time at the end of January. It’s
JANUARY 2024 around the planet inside the

orbit of Titan. Tethys, Dione,
located in Pisces the Fish, just
south of the Circlet asterism. It’s
Starting strong
and Rhea shine at magnitude 5° due south of 4th-magnitude
Worlds meet
The new year begins You’ll find Saturn glowing LIBR A

OPHIUCHUS
with Jupiter and 30° high in the southwestern
Saturn visible most of the eve- sky an hour after sunset. It lies
ning. Uranus and Neptune are in the constellation Aquarius,
on show as well, requiring opti- shining at magnitude 0.9. The Antares
cal aid to spot. Meanwhile bright star Fomalhaut —
Mercury, Venus, and Mars con- slightly fainter at magnitude 1.2 SC ORPIUS
gregate in the morning sky, with — lies 19° to its south-southeast. Venus
Mercury and Mars reaching a A beautiful thin crescent Moon SAGIT TARIUS
close conjunction. Also don’t stands 8° west and then 7° east
Mercury 10°
miss the occultation of Antares, of Saturn on the 13th and 14th, Mars
visible from portions of the respectively.
mountain states and southern Catch Saturn through your Jan. 27, 45 minutes before sunrise
Looking southeast
California. Add the potential telescope early in the evening
for some binocular comets, and before it gets too low. It sets by Capture Mars and Mercury in the same telescopic field of view in late January.
2024 is off to a great start. 9 p.m. local time on Jan. 1 and ALL ILLUSTRATIONS: ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY

RISING MOON I Impacts disturb Tranquillity
IF THERE’S A BEST FACE to the Moon, the Theophilus, Torricelli, and more
thick crescent phase is it. Then, its smooth seas
seemingly sport large waves — big craters take
your breath away and small impacts stand out
OBSERVING by casting long shadows. On the evening of
HIGHLIGHT the 16th, the Serpentine Ridge is an attention-
grabbing couplet of light and darkness snaking
MARS and MERCURY come
within 15' of each other on the across the Sea of Serenity just north of the equa-
morning of Jan. 27. tor. Geologically it’s a compression feature, not
a frozen wave rippling through the lava. Torricelli
Scanning southward, you will run into
Theophilus, a large 60-mile-wide, sharp-
edged crater. Its complex jumble of
peaks and multiple slumped terraces Theophilus
will have shorter shadows than in the Cyrillus
Lambda (λ) Piscium on Jan. 1. N
scene pictured here. Cyrillus just to
Binoculars will reveal the dis- its south is about the same size but,
Catharina
tant planet glowing at magni- being older, has softer edges. Catharina, E
tude 7.8. offset more to the south, is older still, its
As an aid to finding lower and rounded rims evidence of a longer The rugged Bay of Roughness spreads northeast
from the lunar crater Theophilus. CONSOLIDATED LUNAR ATLAS/
Neptune, look for three 5th- history of pummeling. The impact that created UA/LPL. INSET: NASA/GSFC/ASU
and 6th-magnitude stars span- Theophilus spread such a rugged apron of
ning nearly 3° in a line due debris northward onto the Sea of Tranquillity was left of the projectile blasted through the
east of Neptune’s location. As that the region is named Sinus Asperitatis, the back wall as the initial crater was in the process
January progresses, Neptune Bay of Roughness. of forming. Torricelli itself sits off-center in a low-
wanders to within 1° of the east- Look closely at Torricelli, the unusual double profile, ages-old battered bowl filled to the brim
ernmost star of the trio, 20 Psc. crater north of Theophilus. Astronomers are with lava.
Another 7th-magnitude star lies confident that its weird shape comes from a Before inventing the mercury barometer,
20' south of Neptune. single glancing blow instead of two unrelated Evangelista Torricelli was an assistant to Galileo
The ice giant is some 30.6 events. A fraction of a second after impact, what during the astronomer’s last months of life.
astronomical units (2.8 billion
miles; 1 astronomical unit, or
AU, is the average Earth-Sun
distance) from Earth in late METEOR WATCH I An early start
January, and its tiny bluish
disk spans 2". Neptune’s retro- Quadrantid meteor shower THE QUADRANTID METEOR
grade motion ended in early SHOWER peaks the morning of
December and the planet barely URSA Jan. 4 and is best viewed in the hours
M AJOR
moves against the background Alkaid before dawn. The crescent Moon won’t
stars all month. affect observations much. The shower
Jupiter is a stunning object Radiant is active from Dec. 28 to Jan. 12; it is
all evening. After sunset, it VIRGO named after a defunct constellation
B O ÖTES Arcturus
stands high in the southern sky DR AC O that lies in the northern regions of
in Aries the Ram. It shines at Boötes.
C ORONA The narrow peak of activity is
magnitude –2.6 on Jan. 1 and B OREALIS
expected to occur around 4 A.M. EST,
dims to –2.4 by the 31st. Jupiter 10°
HERCULES favoring locations across the U.S. The
remains visible until after mid-
Vega radiant rises soon after 9 P.M. local time
night, offering hours of viewing Rasalgethi LIBR A
and by 4 A.M. is about 45° high. Expect
its delicate cloud belts and wan- LYR A about 25 to 30 meteors per hour, cor-
dering moons. Its path through responding to a zenithal hourly rate of
Aries is now directly eastward 80 meteors per hour (though this can
after reaching its stationary vary quite a bit). Look also for the occa-
Jan. 4, 4 A.M.
point at the end of Looking northeast sional fireball known to occur with this
December. QUADRANTID METEORS
shower.
At the start of the Active dates: Dec. 28–Jan. 12
The Quadrantids have a narrow peak The Quadrantids result from
Peak: Jan. 4 the morning of Jan. 4, so observing
month, Jupiter displays a 2003 EH1, discovered in 2003 by Brian
Moon at peak: Waning crescent early increases your chances of a good
magnificent disk spanning Maximum rate at peak: show. Skiff at Lowell Observatory.
— Continued on page 34 80 meteors/hour
N
STAR DOME ζ
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HOW TO USE THIS MAP β
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This map portrays the sky as seen
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near 35° north latitude. Located Ψ
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inside the border are the cardinal A MINOR

M α URSA
directions and their intermediate β
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MAP SYMBOLS
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Open cluster
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Globular cluster
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STAR COLORS
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A star’s color depends ε Adh ζ α
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The hottest stars shine blue
SE
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Slightly cooler stars appear white LU β
• Intermediate stars (like the Sun) glow yellow
M
BA
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• Lower-temperature stars appear orange
• The coolest stars glow red
α α
• Fainter stars can’t excite our eyes’ color

receptors, so they appear white unless you
HOROLOGIUM
use optical aid to gather more light
S
BEGINNERS: WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT HOW TO READ A STAR CHART AT
www.Astronomy.com/starchart.
JANUARY 2024
SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THURS. FRI. SAT.
1 2 3 4 5 6
W
N
S
δ U
N
G
Y
C
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
b
η ne
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY

α
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
ε
μ
ζ
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
TA
δ β
ER
ζ
C
LA
α
28 29 30 31
Note: Moon phases in the calendar vary in size due to the distance
from Earth and are shown at 0h Universal Time.
η
DA
ME
β
1
M3
μ
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Enif
DR
PEGASUS
ε
AN
1 The Moon is at apogee (251,599 miles from Earth), 10:28 A.M. EST
α
Mercury is stationary, 11 P.M. EST

δ
W
θ
α
2 Earth is at perihelion (91.4 million miles from the Sun), 8 P.M. EST
α
3 Last Quarter Moon occurs at 10:30 P.M. EST

γ
4 Quadrantid meteor shower peaks

S
ES
ARIU
SC
6 Venus passes 6° north of Antares, 3 A.M. EST

η
PI
AQU
Path of the
S
8 The Moon passes 0.8° north of Antares, 10 A.M. EST
un (ecliptic)
The Moon passes 6° south of Venus, 3 P.M. EST
9 The Moon passes 7° south of Mercury, 2 P.M. EST
10 The Moon passes 4° south of Mars, 4 A.M. EST
δ
11 New Moon occurs at 6:57 A.M. EST

η
S
U 12 Mercury is at greatest western elongation (24°), 10 A.M. EST
ET
C
τ 13 The Moon is at perigee (225,102 miles from Earth), 5:36 A.M. EST
β
14 The Moon passes 2° south of Saturn, 5 A.M. EST

3
25
C 15 Asteroid Juno is stationary, 6 A.M. EST
NG P
SG The Moon passes 0.9° south of Neptune, 3 P.M. EST
α R
TO 17 First Quarter Moon occurs at 10:53 P.M. EST
LP
U
SW
SC 18 The Moon passes 3° north of Jupiter, 4 P.M. EST

19 The Moon passes 3° north of Uranus, 3 P.M. EST
IX
20 Pluto is in conjunction with the Sun, 9 A.M. EST
O EN
PH 25 Full Moon occurs at 12:54 P.M. EST
27 Uranus is stationary, 6 A.M. EST
Mercury passes 0.2° north of Mars, 11 A.M. EST
29 The Moon is at apogee (252,138 miles from Earth), 3:14 A.M. EST
PATHS OF THE PLANETS
DRA
UMa AUR
LYN
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
CYG HER
LMi
CVn
LYR BOÖ GEM Metis
CrB
Comet 62P/ n
VUL COM
Tsuchinshan Moo Vesta
the liptic)
h of n (ec
DEL LEO Pat f the Su
SGE o Astraea
Path
SER CNC ORI
AQL CMi
Palla
E QU s Celestial equator
AQR VIR Juno SEX
Mercury appears bright
OPH MON
CA P at dawn in mid-January
LIB CRT
Su n Venus Ceres CRV CMA
LEP
Mars Co
me HYA PYX
SGR t C/ ANT PUP
2 02
MIC 1 S3
LUP COL
SCO CAE
TE L VEL
Moon phases Dawn Midnight
13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To locate the Moon in the sky, draw a line from the phase
shown for the day straight up to the curved blue line. 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22
Uranus
Jupiter
THE PLANETS THE PLANETS IN THE SKY
IN THEIR ORBITS These illustrations show the size, phase,
Arrows show the inner and orientation of each planet and the two
planets’ monthly motions Neptune brightest dwarf planets at 0h UT for the dates
and dots depict the in the data table at bottom. South is at the top
outer planets’ positions Saturn to match the view through a telescope.
at midmonth from high
above their orbits.
Venus
Mercury Mars
Ceres
Earth Jupiter Pluto
Perihelion is Solar conjunction
January 2 is January 20
Mercury
Greatest western
PLANETS MERCURY VENUS
elongation is Date Jan. 15 Jan. 15
January 12
Venus Magnitude –0.2 –4.0
Angular size 6.4" 13.2"
Mars
Illumination 68% 82%
Ceres Distance (AU) from Earth 1.058 1.267
Distance (AU) from Sun 0.420 0.722
Right ascension (2000.0) 18h02.8m 17h14.3m
Declination (2000.0) –22°13' –21°35'

This map unfolds the entire night sky from sunset (at right) until sunrise (at left). Arrows
JULY 2021
and colored dots show motions and locations of solar system objects during the month. JANUARY 2024
1
PER AND LAC Callisto

2 Io
CYG Europa Ganymede

TRI 3
LYR Europa
ARI
Uranus VUL 4
PEG
TAU DEL Io
SGE
PSC 5
Comet 144P/
Kushida Jupiter EQU
AQL SER
6 Callisto
Ganymede
Melpomene Neptune AQR
7 Jupiter
Saturn SCT
CET
Su n JUPITER’S 8
MOONS
SCL CAP
Pluto Dots display 9
ERI FOR PsA SGR positions of
MIC Galilean satellites 10
at 10 P.M. EST on
PHE G RU the date shown.
11
Early evening South is at the
top to match the
12
view through a
telescope.
13
14
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
15
16
Jupiter S
Saturn 17
W E
18
N
19
10"
20
21
Uranus Neptune Pluto

22
23
24
MARS CERES JUPITER SATURN URANUS NEPTUNE PLUTO 25

Jan. 31 Jan. 15 Jan. 15 Jan. 15 Jan. 15 Jan. 15 Jan. 15
1.3 9.1 –2.5 0.9 26
5.7 7.8 15.2
4.0" 0.4" 42.0" 15.9" 3.7" 2.2" 0.1" 27
99% 99% 99% 100% 100% 100% 100%
28
2.323 3.541 4.695 10.463 19.178 30.368 35.910
1.444 2.772 4.988 9.734 19.611 29.903 34.932 29
19h25.1m 17h20.2m 2h14.8m 22h26.9m 3h05.8m 23h43.6m 20h09.1m

30
–22°50' –21°34' 12°21' –11°27' 17°08' –3°07' –22°59'
31
WHEN TO
SKY THIS MONTH — Continued from page 29 VIEW THE
PLANETS
The buddy system Later, both shadows appear to
transit one after the other. They EVENING SKY
S pair up again Jan. 20. Jupiter (south)
Ganymede Saturn (southwest)
Europa Overnight on Jan. 19/20,
Jupiter Uranus (southeast)
Callisto appears south of Jupiter Neptune (southwest)
Europa’s shadow Ganymede’s shadow at the same time that Io and its
shadow are transiting the disk. MIDNIGHT
W For observers in the Midwest, Jupiter (west)
Uranus (west)
Jupiter sets during the event
30" — but the western half of the MORNING SKY
Jan. 6, 9:40 P.M. EST Io U.S. will see Callisto move due Mercury (southeast)
south of the planet. Venus (southeast)
Europa and Ganymede transit Jupiter together with their shadows several Uranus shines at magnitude Mars (southeast)
times this month. The first such event occurs on the 6th. Callisto lies far east, 5.7 and is located in eastern
outside the field of view shown here.
Aries, roughly halfway between
Jupiter and the Pleiades star the time it reaches its stationary
4" through a telescope. involved are now far west of the cluster (M45). It is an easy tar- point Jan. 27. You can find this
Immediately noticeable are disk itself. get to find with binoculars and region about 12° southwest of
two dark bands straddling the Europa and Ganymede technically visible to the naked M45, or roughly two field diam-
equator. Occasionally the Great repeat this event Jan. 13/14. By eye under ideal conditions. eters in 7x50 binoculars. Uranus
Red Spot appears adjacent to 8 p.m. EST, both moons are On Jan. 1, the ice giant stands 19.5 AU (1.8 billion
the southern band. By the end transiting. They leave the disk stands 45' south of 53 Arietis. It miles) from Earth by the end of
of January, Jupiter’s distance within about 15 minutes of each moves west during the month, the month and through a tele-
from Earth has increased to other starting at 9:45 p.m. EST. extending this distance to 53' by scope shows off a 4"-wide disk.
4.97 AU (462 million miles)
and its disk spans 40".
The four bright Galilean
moons — Io, Europa, COMET SEARCH I Climbing as the stars sink
Ganymede, and Callisto —
undergo transits and occulta- NORTHWEST, STEADY AS SHE Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
tions. You’ll see moons transit COMES! By luck, the comet pre-
first followed by their shadows, dicted to just crack the naked-eye
N δ
barrier in April combines with NGC 7000
and as the month progresses, Deneb
Earth’s motion to remain between ξ
the separation between moon
the evening ecliptic and the Milky
and shadow increases due to
Way. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks only NGC 7027
NGC 6910
our changing perspective. ν
returns every 71 years, so few
Currently due to the relative tilt σ Path of γ
people alive will have seen it. Comet Pons-Brooks NGC 6888
of its orbit to our line of sight, First discovered in 1812 by E M29
Callisto misses the disk. 30 τ
Jean-Louis Pons, it reached a 25 20 10 5 Jan. 1
On Jan. 6, Ganymede and respectable 4th magnitude. But its NGC 7063 λ 15
υ CYGNUS
Europa are transiting the disk recorded positions were too poor NGC 6871 η
at sunset in the Midwest. Their to calculate its 1883 return, when
Veil Nebula ε
two shadows move across the it was accidentally recovered by
planet next, starting with 3°
William Brooks.
ζ
Europa’s around 7:40 p.m. EST. On the 12th, the 10th- φ
As it approaches the western magnitude fuzzball passes ½° from
limb of the planet, notice the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) in Comet Pons-Brooks is crossing the rich constellation Cygnus. Only
the picturesque heart of Cygnus. brighter deep-sky objects are shown here, though many more abound.
the giant black shadow of
Ganymede begin to transit soon Set up in early twilight so you’re
after 9:20 p.m. EST. It takes ready to observe before it drops below 10° in altitude. Put any city light dome to the southeast if you can.
more than 10 minutes to fully An outburst to naked-eye brightness could happen! Comet researcher Richard Miles noted that Pons-
appear. When do you first Brooks can flare up more than 4 magnitudes in a night, and more than once per visit. Let’s hope the jump
notice it? It slips onto the south- we saw in July repeats.
ern polar region of Jupiter and Meanwhile, 144P/Kushida approaches Aldebaran from the west, possibly breaking 9th magnitude
(though some sources suggest only 11th). And observers south of the equator get a very nice view of
takes nearly two hours to cross
7th-magnitude C/2021 S3 (PanSTARRS) as dawn breaks. Observers in the Gulf States can join in, but this
the disk. Notice the two moons
PanSTARRS discovery quickly gets difficult from farther north. The geometry improves next month.
LOCATING ASTEROIDS I
Surf and turf
IT SHOULD TAKE LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES to make a
sighting of 4 Vesta. With 31 nights in January, how many times
Hanging together can you spot it?
Start at the orange luminary Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus,
CETUS then slide east along the southern horn of the bull to reach 3rd-
PISCE S magnitude Zeta (ζ) Tauri. Vesta is remarkably easy for binoculars
Neptune or the smallest scope from suburbia, making it simple to record
Diphda
PEG ASU S its shifting position night to night on an observing log page.
AQUARIUS Despite the presence of the Milky Way, the Taurus dust clouds
Enif
Moon suppress so much background starlight that there are few stars
6th magnitude or brighter here.
Skat Saturn Take note as our 7th-magnitude main-belt asteroid steps
DELPHINUS
north of Zeta from the 7th to the 9th. In one session, you can
Deneb Algedi even see it shift over the course of two to three hours. Jan. 10 is
Fomalhaut 10°
the best for that, while on the 21st, the Moon may interfere too
PISCIS CAPR IC ORNU S
AUSTRINUS much. From a dark sky, Vesta dots the low-power field of the Crab
Nebula (M1) from Jan. 11 to 13.
Fans of seeing double can watch the rapid change in position
Jan. 14, 1 hour after sunset angle for the very unequal pairing of 2nd-magnitude Beta (β)
Looking southwest Tauri and 10th-magnitude asteroid 37 Fides, only 90" to the star’s
south, on the 3rd.
A crescent Moon visits Saturn in the evening sky midmonth. Neptune,
although shown here, requires binoculars to spot.
By the horns
The morning predawn sky narrow band from southern
N
hosts a trio of planets that California up through the
quickly change relative position. Rocky Mountain states may see
Venus, the brightest and most the occultation in twilight. The
obvious, rises early and is later star disappears around 6:30 a.m.
joined by Mercury and Mars in MST and reappears around
the hour before sunrise, low in 7:40 a.m. MST, in daylight for M1
Path of Vesta 30
the southeast. most of the U.S. E
25
20
We’ll start with Venus, shin- Meanwhile, Mercury reaches 10
15
ORION ζ
ing at magnitude –4 and stand- 51 percent lit on the 7th and Jan. 1 5 TAURUS
ing less than 1° north of Beta brightens to magnitude –0.1 on χ1
(β) Scorpii on Jan. 1. Antares, the 8th. The apparent size of its
the brightest star in Scorpius, disk has shrunk slightly (7") as
lies 9° below Venus. The planet its orbit carries it away from
rises a full three hours before Earth. The morning of Jan. 9 1°
the Sun, placing it well up in the finds the waning Moon 7.5°
southeastern sky before twilight south of Mercury. After the Vesta should be easy to snag as it slides by bright Zeta Tauri, the tip of
Taurus’ southern horn.
begins. On the same morning, Moon departs the morning
Mercury stands 5° high an hour scene, Mercury and Venus move
before sunrise and shines at closer until the 17th, when they
magnitude 0.5. A telescope stand 11° apart. After this date, Mercury about 6° high in the farther west along the ecliptic
reveals Mercury as a 9"-wide Mercury begins a slow fall back southeast and shining at magni- and 10° above the horizon.
disk that is nearly 30 percent lit. toward the Sun, extending its tude –0.2. Now search closer to Through a telescope, Mars
Venus moves into Ophiuchus separation from Venus and the horizon for Mars, a very dim appears full and 4" wide, while
and stands 6° north of Antares brightening to magnitude –0.3 magnitude 1.3 and only 2° high. Mercury shows an 84-percent-lit
by the 6th. A waning crescent by the 31st. Binoculars will aid your search. disk spanning 5". Venus’ disk is
Moon approaches the following Mars rises out of the Sun’s Mercury and Mars close in 85 percent lit and 12" across.
morning, hanging 16° east of glow in late January. Your first on each other until Jan. 27,
Venus. On the 8th, the Moon opportunity to spot it could be when they stand a mere 15' Martin Ratcliffe is a
lies 6.6° south of Venus and Jan. 19, when Mars stands 5° apart in twilight. You’ll need planetarium professional with
occults Antares for a limited east of Mercury. Forty-five min- a telescope to spot Mars right Evans & Sutherland and enjoys
area of the U.S. Observers in a utes before sunrise, look for next to Mercury — a rare and observing from Salt Lake City.
remarkable pairing. They stand Alister Ling, who lives in
GET DAILY UPDATES ON YOUR NIGHT SKY AT 2° high 45 minutes before sun- Edmonton, Alberta, is a longtime
www.Astronomy.com/skythisweek. rise. As a guide, Venus is 12° watcher of the skies.
49 BARNARD’S LOOP
Many of the sky’s emission nebulae appear small, requiring
high magnifications to even bring them into view. Some
also can be hard to locate. Not Barnard’s Loop. Cataloged
as Sharpless 2–276, this massive deep-sky object spans
more than 10° within Orion.
Its common name comes from American astronomer
Edward Emerson Barnard, who, during the last decade of
the 19th century, photographed it while taking wide-field
images of the sky.
Barnard’s Loop is one component of the Orion molecu-
lar cloud complex. Other well-known celestial objects that
are part of this complex include the Orion Nebula (M42),
the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33), the Flame Nebula
(NGC 2024), and M78, which is the sky’s brightest reflec-
tion nebula.
The Loop (it’s actually an arc) is centered on the Orion
Nebula. Ultraviolet radiation from hot new stars there
causes the Loop to glow, mainly in Hydrogen-alpha light.
And although that makes it an emission nebula, researchers
at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
used both 2D and 3D data to show that it probably formed
from a supernova explosion between 2 million and 4 million
years ago.
By far, the best views of this object are created by astro-
imagers, but you can still observe its brightest parts. Giant
binoculars equipped with nebula filters are the best way
to search for it. That’s because no telescope has a wide
enough field of view to take in even the brightest section,
which stretches nearly 6°.
Still, if you want to use a telescope, start with the
eyepiece that provides the widest field and attach a neb-
ula filter to it. You must view from a dark site and be will-
VINCE FARNSWORTH
ing to take your time. With your scope pointed to the

general area, start moving it around slowly. What you’re
looking for is a slight diffuse brightening in that part of
the sky. — M.E.B.
M67 And although astronomers know it’s an old cluster, they haven’t
pinned down an exact age for it yet. Estimates range between
M67 is the second-best open cluster in the constellation Cancer 3.5 billion and 5.5 billion years, which make it the oldest nearby
the Crab. At magnitude 6.9, it’s outshone only by the Beehive open cluster.
Cluster (M44). It has a diameter of 29', nearly the same as the Estimates of its mass aren’t much more precise. Various research-
Full Moon. You’ll find it easily through binoculars or a small tele- ers have pegged it somewhere between 1,100 and 1,400 solar masses.
scope 1.7° due west of magnitude 4.3 Alpha (α) Cancri. It was It contains at least 500 stars, of which about 100 are Sun-like. Another
first seen in 1779 by German 150 are white dwarfs, and
50
astronomer Johann Gottfried the remainder are red giants
Koehler. or blue stragglers.
Through a 4-inch tele- Because of its age, M67
scope, you’ll resolve roughly has no stars hotter than
two dozen stars in M67. spectral type F. And as it
Increase the aperture just to continues to age, the hottest
6 inches, and 50 individual stars will eventually become
stars will shine forth. A dozen G-type (like the Sun) and
of these stars are brighter progressively cooler. And
than 11th magnitude. As you speaking of similarities to
observe M67, note the yellow our star, a study of starspots
star HIP 43519 on its north- on 20 of M67’s stars by
eastern edge. It glows at the Leibniz Institute for
magnitude 7.8 but it doesn’t Astrophysics Potsdam and
belong to the cluster; instead, Johns Hopkins University
it lies in the foreground. conducted in 2016 showed
M67 lies between 2,600 that they (and probably the
and 2,900 light-years away. vast majority of the stars in
DAN CROWSON
the cluster) rotate at the

same rate as the Sun. — M.E.B.
36 ASTRONOMY
FORNAX DWARF telescopes — even when they were found!
Shapley discovered the Fornax Dwarf on
The Fornax Dwarf is a satellite galaxy of the photographic plates. It was a challenge to
Milky Way, and the second discovered. It was observe visually, requiring both a large aper-
found by astronomer Harlow Shapley, shortly ture and a wide field. Today’s telescopes are
after he identified one in Sculptor (see #65). a quantum leap ahead of those in the mid-
He described both in a 1938 Nature letter as 20th century. In the last several decades,
new “stellar systems” outside the Hubble gal- the number of similar satellite galaxies has
axy classification system. grown significantly, with discoveries of
51
It has a magnitude estimated at 7.4, which objects in at least 28 other constellations.
is spread over an area of about 20' by 13' — Fornax’s globular clusters are curious
in other words, a very low surface brightness. for other reasons, too. Four are typically
Unlike the Sculptor Dwarf, this dwarf is ESO/DSS2/GIUSEPPE DONATIELLO ancient, over 12 billion years old. One is
unique in that it has its own swarm of six about 9 billion years old, while another is
globular clusters — a high number for a type globulars are so small that their light is more very young, around 2 billion years old. Why
dE4 galaxy. John Herschel discovered the concentrated, making them appear brighter such a wide range of ages? It is possible
brightest globular in the Fornax Dwarf system and easier to find. Sculptor and the other they came from other dwarf galaxies that
in 1835, more than a century before Shapley dwarf elliptical galaxies around the Milky Way no longer exist due to encounters with the
found the galaxy itself. Why? Because had surface brightnesses too low for past Milky Way. — A.G.
ANTENNAE GALAXIES
NGC 4038/9, known as the Antennae or Ringtail galaxies, are a well-
known pair of colliding galaxies in Corvus. Halton Arp designated them
No. 244 in his famous 1966 Catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies. The duo started
as a normal and barred spiral that began interacting an estimated 900
million years ago, when life on Earth was just beginning to blossom into
multicellular organisms. During the Cambrian Period some 500 million
years ago, while trilobites were crawling in our oceans, the two galaxies
passed through one another. During the Coal Age 300 million years ago,
stars and gas were being flung from the galaxies out into the intergalactic
medium, beginning their journey to create the “antennae” visible in photo-
graphs today. If you prefer the Ringtail moniker, the “ring” is the now-
ragged spiral, NGC 4039, while the “tail” is what’s left of the barred spiral,
52 ALAN DYER
NGC 4038.
One of the reasons these galaxies are so bright is that they are in star-
burst mode. The collision sent shock waves through them, compressing
gases and increasing the rate of star formation. Such starburst galaxies
are well documented. At an estimated 45 million light-years away, these
PENCIL NEBULA aren’t even the closest examples. M82 in Ursa Major is only 12 million
light-years distant and NGC 253 in Sculptor is 10 million light-years away.
The Pencil Nebula (NGC 2736) is the brightest part of the
Nonetheless, 11th-magnitude NGC 4038/9 are some of the easiest
Vela supernova remnant (see #76). About 11,000 years ago,
interacting galaxies to find. Look 3.5° southwest of Gamma (γ) Corvi (or
humans in the Southern Hemisphere witnessed a brilliant
¾° north of 31 Crateris). Their weird shape can be seen in small telescopes.
new star in what is now known as the constellation Vela. It
Large scopes reveal uneven brightness due to patches of star clouds and
would have been the brightest object in the sky after the
dark nebulae typical of many starburst galaxies. Both nuclear regions are
Sun. The progenitor star was massive; its death was a type II
visible with larger telescopes. This may be a glimpse of what M31 and the
supernova. For comparison, the famous supernova of 1054
Milky Way might look like in a few billion years — who knows! — A.G.
that created the Crab Nebula (M1) was magnitude –4, visible
in the daytime for three weeks. It is about 6,500 light-years
away. Vela was nearly seven times closer!
The Vela supernova remnant is reminiscent of the Veil
Nebula in Cygnus and the Jellyfish Nebula (see #48) in
Gemini. Both are now glowing arcs of gas; the former is 3°
across and 2,400 light-years away, while the latter is 50'
across and 5,000 light-years distant. The Vela supernova rem-
53
nant (also cataloged as Gum 16) is much larger, composed of
thin filaments of gas spread across 8° of the southern sky.
NGC 2736 itself is about 815 light-years away. As supernova
remnants go, this one is practically in our backyard.
Its name describes the shape: a thin, pencil-like cloud of
glowing hydrogen. The half-degree-long nebula lies right on
the galactic plane, roughly 3° south-southwest of Lambda
(λ) Velorum. The nebula is located about 4.5° west of the
Vela pulsar and is moving through space at a speed of
400,000 mph (644,000 km/h). The eastern side of the Pencil
Nebula is the brightest as it encounters gas in the interstellar
DYLAN O’DONNELL
medium. The famous deep-sky observer John Herschel

discovered this object in 1835 from an observatory in
South Africa. — A.G.
ANT NEBULA
Menzel 3, also called the Ant Nebula, lies formation is thought to be related to the
about 3,000 light-years away in the southern star’s evolution.
constellation Norma. At magnitude 13.8 and Two theories postulate how such a weird
about 1' across its longest dimension, it is a nebula might form. The central star might be
faint target for observers. Like many obscure a binary. To influence the nebula, its compo-
objects, this one reveals some amazing detail nents must be very close, perhaps separated
only with large telescopes. The name comes by as little as the Earth-Sun distance. At that
from the way its shape resembles a garden proximity, the outside of the bloated red giant
ant, with a clearly defined head and thorax. creating the nebula might extend beyond
Shapes like this are associated with bipolar its companion — a star inside a star! As the
planetary nebulae. smaller star orbits the larger one, its influence
In addition to the core where the formative might create the odd nebular shape.
star is located, there are four distinct outflow A second theory posits that the dying
structures associated with this nebula. The star is spinning and its strong magnetic field
two bulb-shaped lobes are punctuated by is creating the fantastic shapes. Moving at
faster-moving gas on each side. There are also 620 miles per second (1,000 km/s), the gas
two hourglass-shaped filamentary columns follows the lines of the magnetic field as they
and two cone-shaped rays that radiate in escape into space; as the gas is lit by ultra-
slightly different directions. One peculiar fea- violet light from the star, it reveals the shape
ture that distinguishes the Ant Nebula from of the magnetic field.
similar objects is an equatorial ring, called
a chakram, surrounding the central star. Its
No matter the cause, the result is
beautiful. — A.G.
54
SATURN NEBULA LEMON SLICE NEBULA
The Saturn Nebula (NGC You’ll find the Lemon Slice Nebula (IC 3568) in the far northern
7009) was one of the first reaches of Camelopardalis the Giraffe. The name comes from a
oddball planetary nebulae Hubble Space Telescope false-color image showing a yellow disk
known. As the name sug- with a “fibrous” radial pattern that resembles a lemon in cross-
gests, this dying star resem- section. Visually, the color is decidedly nondescript; if anything, it is
bles the planet — albeit a more typical bluish from ionized gases like oxygen and nitrogen.
crudely. It doesn’t actually IC 3568 has the distinction of being the northernmost plan-
have rings but sports highly etary nebula at 82.5° in declination. It lies nearly midway between
elongated equatorial projec- Polaris and Kochab, forming an obtuse triangle from its position
tions, called ansae. William outside the border of Ursa Minor. At magnitude 10.6, it’s bright
Herschel observed it from enough for a small telescope. The Lemon Slice has two shells.
England in 1782 but William The brighter inner shell is only 6" in diameter, roughly the appar-
55 Parsons, Earl of Rosse, ent size of Uranus. The outer shell is 18" across and is best seen
ALAN DYER
named it in the 1840s, after in larger telescopes because it has a lower surface brightness.
his 72-inch telescope The central star is easily seen at magnitude 12.3.
revealed the odd structures. Planetary nebulae with multiple shells are typical, as the central
Today, a good 8-inch telescope will give you a nice view, reveal- star sheds gas periodically as it evolves. The outer shell is often too
ing the shape it took larger speculum mirrors to see nearly 180 years faint to see visually or, as in this case, requires a large telescope.
ago. At 8th magnitude, this object is bright enough for scopes over The Lemon Slice Nebula lies about 4,500 light-years away,
6 inches to show a brilliant green color. The nebulae around dying with a diameter of 0.4 light-year. That’s 2.4 trillion miles (3.8 tril-
solar-type stars typically emit this fluorescent green glow as oxygen lion kilometers), or
gas in the envelope is excited by the central stellar remnant. more than 25,000
What causes the odd shape? Multiple eruptions from the star
— now a white dwarf — sent new gas to interact with previous out-
flows. Planetary nebulae are diverse, as the dynamic interaction of
gases as the star loses mass often creates unique structures. Most
56 times the distance
from Earth to the
Sun! It’s small
compared to other
of that detail is too fine to be seen in typical amateur telescopes. planetary nebulae,
Look 1° west of Nu (ν) Aquarii to find this wonderful object. The but huge compared
magnitude 11.5 central star is visible in modest instruments, not a to the solar system.
NASA/ESA/HUBBLE/KEVIN M. GILL (CC BY 2.0)
challenge compared to the Ring Nebula (M57). The brightest portion When our Sun
of the nebula is 24" by 17" and distinctly oval in shape. The outer shell becomes a plan-
nearly doubles its size. Like many planetaries, determining its dis- etary nebula in
tance is challenging. Estimates place NGC 7009 anywhere from 5 billion years, it
2,000 to 4,000 light-years away. That means the gas envelope is will expand into the
between 0.2 and 0.4 light-year across. — A.G. Oort Cloud, the
sphere of debris
far beyond the orbit
of Pluto. — A.G.
NASA, ESA, AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA)
58 ESO/DSS2, GIUSEPPE DONATIELLO
BARNARD’S
GALAXY
Barnard’s Galaxy (NGC 6822) is the easiest
NGC 6231 considered one of the most luminous
Local Group member to observe in
stars in the sky, is a member. Zeta2 lies
Sagittarius. It was discovered by Edward
NGC 6231 is sometimes called the Northern only 150 light-years away and, while visu-
Emerson Barnard in 1884 with a 6-inch
Jewel Box Cluster because resembles the ally brighter, is intrinsically less luminous
refractor; this late-19th-century Vanderbilt
original Jewel Box Cluster (NGC 4755 [see than Zeta1. The cluster and OB associa-
University astronomer was one of the first
#82]) in Crux. But at nearly –42° in declination lie in the arm of the Milky Way closer
prolific astrophotographers. His atlas of dark
tion, calling it “northern” is a bit confusing. to the center of the galaxy than the one
nebulae is a major part of his legacy, but
Also called the Baby Scorpion because it is housing our Sun. The region is sur-
capturing NGC 6822 was also one of his
located near Zeta1 (ζ1) and Zeta2 (ζ2) Scorpii, rounded by a large, faint cloud of gas and
many accomplishments.
which form the base of the constellation dust called RCW 113.
At 1.5 million light-years, it is just beyond
Scorpius’ tail, NGC 6231 is the head of the For observers at northern temperate
the gravitational pull of the Milky Way. And at
False Comet, an area rich in stars trailing latitudes, it’s another brilliant object
7,000 light-years across, it’s the same size as
down to Mu (μ) Scorpii. located near or below the horizon. Where
the Small Magellanic Cloud, but the irregular
There are several nebulae in the area, it rises, this young cluster is worth a look.
galaxy is drifting alone.
though most are difficult to see. The region It is the 6th-brightest cluster in the whole
Its magnitude of 9.3 is deceptive because
around this cluster contains numerous hot, sky at magnitude 2.6, with a width of 14'.
the light is spread over 16' by 14'. With dark
luminous young stars. Such stars have a It’s a great object for binoculars or a small
skies, I’ve seen this galaxy multiple times in
spectral classification of O or B and are telescope. NGC 6231 was first recorded
scopes ranging from 6 to 10 inches. Others
formed from the same gas cloud; these by Italian observer Giovanni Batista
have seen it in binoculars under magnitude
groups are called OB associations. The Hodierna before 1654. He developed a list
6.5 skies! Larger apertures coupled with
cluster is part of the Scorpius OB1 associa- of noncometary objects some 120 years
nebula filters will reveal bright emission neb-
tion and lies 5,500 light-years away. Zeta1, before Charles Messier. — A.G.
ulae, especially on the galaxy’s northern end,
making it a fascinating object to view. Paul
57
W. Hodge cataloged 188 HII regions in this
galaxy in 1988. He also noted 16 OB associa-
tions — groups of hot, luminous stars. Hodge
counted 363 stars brighter than 18th magni-
tude, meaning a 20- to 25-inch telescope
may resolve some stars. These may give the
galaxy a grainy texture, like a globular cluster
just below the limit of your ability to resolve.
It’s an interesting target for the serious
observer.
A wide-field telescope may also pick up
the bright planetary nebula NGC 6818 less
than a degree to the north-northwest. The
Little Gem Nebula glows at 10th magnitude
and spans only 20" — and at 6,000 light-
years away, it is 250 times closer to us. — A.G.
ALAN DYER
DARK DOODAD
The Dark Doodad Nebula, unlike the Horsehead or Saturn nebu-
lae, has one of those names that has stuck but isn’t particularly
descriptive. (The general definition for doodad is a small object
whose name you can’t remember or do not know.) Technically, it’s
the 149th object in Aage Sanqvist’s 1977 article “More southern
dark dust clouds.” Dennis DiCicco is credited with naming it while
in Australia observing Halley’s Comet in 1986. I’d simply call it the
Comet Shadow Nebula, as photos show a darker “comet head”
that grows paler toward the “tail.”
Just what is the Dark Doodad? It’s a comet-shaped molecular
cloud in the deep southern constellation Musca the Fly. Its narrow,
ESO/M. BELLAZZINI ET AL.

dense mass blots out background stars in an otherwise rich part
of the Milky Way. Stretching 3° (the width of six Full Moons)
across the sky, it’s an ideal binocular object. Like many dark nebu-
lae, this one is relatively close by, only 700 light-years away. That
translates to a dust cloud over 30 light-years across. That’s equiv-
alent to the distance between Sol and Delta (δ) Eridani (Rana).
60
This nebula is easy to find, located less than a degree north- SAGDIG
west of Gamma (γ) Muscae. The transparency of this region of
the Milky Way is evident in the brightness of the globular cluster SagDIG (also called Sgr dIG or ESO 594–4) is one of the Milky
NGC 4372 positioned a few minutes of arc from the “tail’s” Way’s dwarf irregular galaxy neighbors. In fact, SagDIG stands
terminus. The magnitude 7.2 cluster is located some 19,000 light- for Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy. Don’t confuse it with
years behind the Dark Doodad. This is yet another case of two SagDEG — the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, discovered
different deep-sky objects located in the same area of the sky, in 1994.
projected onto one field of view. — A.G. At 3.4 million light-years away, SagDIG lies slightly farther than
M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy in Triangulum. Discovered June 13,
ALAN DYER
1977, using the 1-meter Schmidt telescope at the European
59 Southern Observatory, it rates as nearly impossible to observe.

The galaxy’s estimated visual magnitude is 15.5; while it’s possible
to observe 16th-magnitude galaxies with a 20-inch telescope
under excellent skies, SagDIG’s light is spread over an area of 2.9'
by 2.1', making it much more elusive than its magnitude suggests.
Large optics and absolutely transparent skies are a prerequi-
site to attempt visual observations. (Let’s see you prove me
wrong!) SagDIG is located about 2° east of Rho (ρ) Sagittarii and
4° above the ecliptic. It lies about 4.5° southwest of Barnard’s
Galaxy (see #58).
Research on this outermost member of the Local Group indi-
cates that its metal-poor stars are relatively young, ranging from
4 billion to 8 billion years old. It has been through an extended
period of star formation, though there is no evidence of remaining
star-forming gas clouds today. Its stars appear spread out on the
sky, allowing at least a dozen background galaxies to shine
through SagDIG. — A.G.
RED SPIDER
NEBULA
The Red Spider Nebula (NGC 6537) is a
modest instruments. Both are classified
as bipolar planetary nebulae.
NGC 6537’s odd shape is thought to
be related in large part to a companion of
61
planetary nebula in Sagittarius located 2.5° the hot white dwarf that generated and
north of the bright open cluster M21. At now energizes this nebula. That white
13th magnitude and roughly 1' across, it can dwarf has a surface temperature as high
easily fall below the radar of observers as 50 times hotter than the Sun’s. The
among the more interesting objects in that density of gas surrounding the center
area of the sky. However, don’t let the name makes the suspected binary impossible to
fool you. The red color is photographic in see. Some astronomers think that unusual
nature, not visual. And the spider shape is magnetic fields created the bipolar struc-
beyond all but the largest telescopes. For ture. The pressure from the star’s solar
most, it may look like a disk with irregular wind created waves not unlike those
edges. NGC 6537 can be seen in modest made by wind blowing across a lake —
telescopes under excellent sky conditions, although these waves are a tad larger!
but its small size makes it a challenge. There The distance to NGC 6537 is subject
is a similar object that’s much easier to see: to much uncertainty. The current best
the Bug Nebula (NGC 6302) in Scorpius. guess is between 1,900 and 4,000 light-
It has a similar shape, which is visible in years. — A.G.
ESO
62 DYLAN O’DONNELL
RHO OPHIUCHI
REGION
The Rho Ophiuchi Region is a large, complex
region of stars, emission nebulae, and dark nebu-
lae covering an area 4.5° by 6.5°. Its impressive
size is due to proximity. The Rho Ophiuchi com-
plex is only 460 light-years away, just slightly far-
ther than the Pleiades Cluster (M45). The object
is so large, even most rich-field telescopes will
only sweep up a portion at a time. The field con-
63
tains the dark nebulae Barnard 44 and 45, Lynds
1688 and 1689, the reflection nebula IC 4604, and
the emission nebula Sharpless 2–9. The globular
cluster M4 and the stars Rho (ρ) Ophiuchi and 2MASS/UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS/IPAC/CALTECH
Sigma (σ) Scorpii further diversify the field, mak-

ing it a wonder of the summer sky. PG 1634+706
about it: You can see light from an object
The brightest star in Scorpius, Antares, makes
PG 1634+706 is the most distant object that is twice as old as our planet and the
this region easy to locate, given its position 3°
in the universe visible in an amateur tele- entire solar system that we call home.
southeast of the complex. In 3D space, Antares
scope. This quasar, located in Draco, When I saw this quasar through a
is located some 90 light-years beyond the com-
varies from magnitude 14.2 to 14.7. If you 25-inch scope, I was humbled by pon-
plex, while Rho is a binary with two blue stars
can see Pluto in your scope, you can see dering the infinitesimal odds of those
about 65 light-years in front of the clouds. Sigma
this object. Until the advent of space particular photons reaching my eyes
Scorpii, a quadruple system, is 300 light-years
telescopes and large adaptive optics and after traveling across the cosmos for
behind the complex, while M4 is some 6,500
mirrors, quasars were the most distant nearly 9 billion years. That is one of the
light-years beyond it!
objects known. Most were over 2 billion attractions of astronomy as a hobby:
Large binoculars under very dark skies may
light-years away, which translates to There are many opportunities to be
be most revealing. The brightness of Antares
photons emitted when cyanobacteria awed by our universe. And it doesn’t
interferes with the dim nature of the nebulae, but
were Earth’s most advanced life. With have to be an in-your-face total solar
the V formed by the two Lynds dark nebulae can
JWST, however, we can now see young eclipse to bring out the wonder.
be seen. The only visually colorful object in the
galaxies at even greater distances. The quasar’s designation (PG) is for
field is the red giant Antares. It almost seems
The redshift of this object is 1.337, Palomar Green (Bright Quasar Survey);
unfair that the human eye is not sensitive to color
making it a midrange quasar. (The the numbers are its approximate coordi-
in objects that are so diffuse. But there are plenty
current record-holder has a redshift of nates. If you like stretching your observ-
of subtle gray and black features to observe in
7.642, about 13 billion light-years away.) ing to the most ancient photons you can
this region. And while it is subtle visually, for an
PG 1634+706 is “only” about 9 billion light- see, there are some one dozen to two
astrophotographer skilled with color filters and
years away and can be seen in a 10- or dozen quasars brighter than magnitude
merging images, the region can be made to look
12-inch scope under excellent skies. Think 14.7 scattered across the sky. — A.G.
like someone dropped cans of blue, yellow, and
red paint on a starry canvas. — A.G.
SCULPTOR DWARF
The Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy is one of the Milky
Way’s dozens of known satellite galaxies. At roughly
300,000 light-years away, this dwarf elliptical gal-
axy (classified as dE3) was the first satellite of the
Milky Way discovered telescopically, found by
Harlow Shapley in 1937. (The Magellanic Clouds
were known prehistorically, since they are easy
naked-eye objects in the Southern Hemisphere.)
Like large galaxies, dwarfs may be spiral or
barred spiral, elliptical, or irregular. They also vary in
size and mass. The Sculptor Dwarf is a lightweight,
coming in at only 30 million solar masses. M32, a
satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy, is much a heftier
NASA AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA); ACKNOWLEDGMENT: A. GOMEZ (CERRO TOLOLO INTER-AMERICAN OBSERVATORY)
dwarf elliptical galaxy with 3 billion solar masses.
While that sounds large, consider that a normal-
sized elliptical like M49 is 200 billion solar masses!
In 2017, astronomers published high-precision
three-dimensional motions of stars in the Sculptor
Dwarf — the first time this had been done for a
dwarf galaxy. The positions of 100 stars were mea-
sured with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002 and
then 12 years later with ESA’s Gaia space observa-
tory. The results showed the stars move preferen-
tially in elongated radial orbits, indicating the
presence of dark matter that increases toward the
center of the galaxy.
Observing the Sculptor Dwarf is challenging but
not impossible under dark skies and a good south-
erly latitude. It can be seen with a 6-inch telescope
in southern U.S. skies. Look 4° due south of Alpha
(α) Sculptoris. It’s nearly 9th magnitude, which
sounds bright, but that light is spread over
a piece of sky roughly the size of the Full Moon.
Photographs show the stars are very slightly more
concentrated toward the center, but there is noth-
ing resembling a core. — A.G.
64 65
DESI LIS, GIUSEPPE DONATIELLO
GOMEZ’S HAMBURGER
Gomez’s Hamburger (IRAS 18059– classification, IRAS 18059–3211’s
3211) is another of those deep-sky distance was placed at 6,500
objects with a strange name. Arturo light-years.
Gomez, an astronomer at Chile’s As astronomers found other
Cerro Tololo Inter-American objects with dark belts bifurcating
Observatory, discovered it in 1985. their glow, more recent investiga-
As celestial burgers go, this one is tions have reinterpreted this dusty
plain — no cheese or condiments, meal. Current evidence suggests
just a light-colored bun with dark Gomez’s Hamburger is indeed a
meat in between. protoplanetary disk surrounding a
The nature of this magnitude young star. This also moves the
14.4 object has been the subject of object’s distance significantly closer
some debate. Astronomers initially to us: a mere 800 to 900 light-years.
thought it was an edge-on planetary Astronomy is rife with objects
nebula. More accurately, it was that were mysterious to astronomers
thought to be the earliest stage in a generation or two ago but now are
the formation of a planetary nebula, well understood. If you have a large
called a protoplanetary nebula (not telescope and excellent skies, look
to be confused with a planet-form- about ½° southwest of the globular
ing protoplanetary disk). Such cluster NGC 6558 in the heart of the
objects are rare because this stage Milky Way, just west of a line from
only lasts about 1,000 years. After Gamma (γ) to Epsilon (ε) Sagittarii
that, the white dwarf blazes through (which form the spout of the
the dust cloud. Based on that initial Teapot). I’ll take fries with that! — A.G.

NGC 7331 and Hickson 56 near NGC is a whale of a galaxy. It’s bright — mag-
BURBIDGE’S CHAIN 3718 are others. nitude 9 — and large, 19' by 5.5' across.
Although these galaxies are challeng- Burbidge’s Chain is just slightly northeast
Burbidge’s Chain in Cetus the Whale is one ing to observe, this chain is easy to locate. from the northern tip of this large galaxy.
of a few examples of a group of galaxies Find Diphda (Beta [β] Ceti) and scan As observing targets go, this is a tough
lying some distance beyond a nearby, about 3° south-southeast. (As a side note, one. The string of four spiral galaxies
brighter foreground galaxy — in this case Diphda is brighter than Alpha [α] Ceti, ranges from about magnitude 14 to 17,
NGC 247. Stephan’s Quintet (see #15) near Menkar.) The foreground object, NGC 247, meaning a large aperture and excellent
skies are essential. At –20° in declination,
the farther south you observe from, the
greater your chance of success. For
astroimagers, a good picture of NGC 247
should reveal Burbidge’s Chain, too.
Several chains in Halton Arp’s Atlas of
Peculiar Galaxies resemble this one: Arp
325 in Virgo, near the Boötes border; and
Arp 332 in Eridanus, near the Fornax
border. Both are faint and require large
telescopes to observe.
NGC 247 itself is worthy of scrutiny
even if the background group isn’t visible.
It’s quite large because it lies only 11 mil-
lion light-years away. (Burbidge’s Chain
is about 300 million light-years distant.)
NGC 247 is part of the Sculptor Galaxy
Group. This near-edge-on SAB(s)d spiral
is small, only 70,000 light-years across,
and has a low surface brightness. There
66
TERRY ROBISON
is a pronounced gap on one side of the
spiral, so some call it the Needle’s Eye
Galaxy. — A.G.
SPIROGRAPH NEBULA
67
IC 418, the Spirograph Nebula, is a planetary nebula in
the constellation Lepus the Hare. This type of nebula
is a preview of what will happen to the Sun in roughly
5 billion years, as all solar-type stars are destined to
become red giants and then white dwarfs. This pro-
cess of “downsizing” creates a planetary nebula. (Less
massive stars slowly cool down after exceptionally
long lives and more massive stars become
supernovae.)
While many planetaries look similar in a telescope,
especially among the rings and disks, their subtle vari-
ations become obvious when imaged with large tele-
scopes. No two planetary nebulae are identical,
particularly because there are many variables at play
when shaping such nebulae. Also important is the
perspective of the observer. Most aging stars eject
matter from their poles. If we see a polar view, the disk
shape is obvious. But if we have an equatorial per-
spective, it may take on a boxy appearance. As the
nebula expands, the presence and density of interstel-
lar material will deform the shape by slowing down the
momentum of dispersing nebular gas. Companion
NASA/ESA AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA)
stars certainly play a role in the final appearance, and

astronomers even speculate the presence of planets,
especially gas giants, could affect the shape as well.
The Spirograph Nebula gets its name from the
microstructure inside the spherical nebula. Anyone
who played with that toy will remember the fascinating
designs it made using ellipses. IC 418’s double shells of
gas similarly host irregular clumps distributed along
various ellipses. This nebula lies roughly 2,500 light-
years away and spans nearly a third of a light-year.
Planetary nebulae are short-lived objects that persist
for up to 10,000 years before dispersing to invisibility,
enriching the galaxy with matter than can be recycled
to create future stars and planets. — A.G.
NGC 300
NGC 300 is a neighbor of the Sculptor
Dwarf (see #65), located about 4° to
its south-southwest. Its distance is just
over 6 million light-years, putting it just
outside our Local Group. Some astron-
omers consider it a member of the
Sculptor Group, the closest galaxy
group beyond the Local Group. Others
put it somewhere between these
groups. It is thought to be gravitation-
ally bound to NGC 55, a bright, large
SB-type edge-on galaxy 8° west.
The galaxy is a spiral with a less
distinct central hub than Edwin
69
Hubble’s Sc class. It is an Sd — usually
ALAN DYER
designated SAd. (The A indicates it’s
a normal spiral rather than barred, or
SB.) Its diameter is 94,000 light-years,
a bit smaller than the Milky Way. It has
tightly wound spiral arms with an over-
all blue color typical of this type of gal-
SNAKE NEBULA bright. Look about a degree and a half north-
northeast of Theta (θ) Ophiuchi, a magnitude
axy. Most of its HII regions are located B72, also called the Snake Nebula, in 3.25 multiple star. The area is rich in dark
in the inner half of the galaxy’s diam- Ophiuchus is another of Barnard’s discover- clouds. Look for a set of nearby “holes”
eter, but the most massive lies at the ies. When observing dark nebulae such as (“plugs” might be more apropos) in the
terminus of one arm. this, you’re looking for dark places in the background glow: B68, B69, B70, and B74.
NGC 300 is magnitude 8.3 and heavens. Such a search requires good skies (Barnard 68 is the densest and darkest of
20' by 13' in size. If you have a good where the richness of the Milky Way makes the four.)
view of objects at a declination of –37°, it obvious when something is obscuring it. The whole region is a wonder to scan with
it’s a nice binocular object. For many (Earthly clouds don’t count!) a wide-field telescope or large binoculars.
observers, it is either very low or never Considered relatively nearby at 650 light- The Snake is at the top of the Pipe Nebula, a
rises above the horizon. This galaxy is years distant, B72 is compact, running 6' in a large cloud spanning 5° in length and more
reminiscent of M33 in Triangulum, a northwest–southeast direction. It is narrow, than 3° in width. That’s large enough to be
class SAcd with a slightly more dis- ranging from 2' to 3' thick. The densest part visible to the naked eye from latitudes with
tinct core. Observers at latitudes of the dust cloud forms an S; it was called good views of the southern sky. And if the
between the Tropic of Cancer and the S Nebula before the moniker Snake Snake and Pipe aren’t enough, they’re also
the Tropic of Capricorn may be able Nebula became popular. Its 5-light-year-long part of a large nebular complex called the
to make comparisons the same night, sinuous nature appears in small telescopes Dark Horse Nebula, which covers a generous
since the two galaxies have similar under skies where the Milky Way glows 10° by 10°. — A.G.
right ascensions.
NGC 300 has produced bright
events that didn’t fit the profiles of
either supernovae or regular novae.
This galaxy is one worth monitoring
for other stellar outbursts. — A.G.
ALAN DYER
70
68

SS 433 called the Manatee Nebula. Recent inves-
tigations have discovered the region also
Aquila’s SS 433 is one of the weirdest stellar emits gamma rays.
objects in the sky. Its designation is from You can find SS 433 just over 1° south-
C.B. Stephenson and N. Sanduleak’s catalog east of 19 Aquilae, in a rich star field near
of stars with hydrogen emission lines, which two open clusters (NGC 6755 and 6756).
typically have extended envelopes surround- Visually, SS 433 appears as one faint star
ing them. This object’s peculiar nature among many — and at 15,000 light-years
sparked intense research on it around 1980. distant, that isn’t surprising. Its light varies
Astronomers now describe it as the first irregularly, but the times I observed it, it
known microquasar. was about 14th magnitude. It lies just offset
Quasars are supermassive black holes from a small group of stars consisting of
billions of times the mass of the Sun. Now, an 11th-magnitude sun with a close pair of
think of such behemoths shrunk down to the mid-12th-magnitude stars to its south, and
scale of a single star. SS 433 consists of an a 13th-magnitude star just south of these.
A-type star orbiting a stellar-mass black hole As soon as I read of its existence, I
surrounded by an accretion disk. Powerful sought out a telescope large enough to
X-rays radiate energy away from the disk see it. I’m sucker for observing usual
as opposing jets of superheated gas shoot objects, even if they look like ordinary faint
along the axis of rotation. The pair lies in the stars. But we know that looks are deceiv-
heart of the supernova remnant W50, also ing. If only we had X-ray vision! — A.G.
71 72 ESO/INSERRA ET AL.
CARTWHEEL
GALAXY
When astronomer Fritz Zwicky discovered
ESO 350–40 (now called the Cartwheel
2MASS/UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS/IPAC/CALTECH
Galaxy) in 1941, he considered it one of the
most complicated known galaxy structures,
based on its stellar dynamics. Little did he
know how abundant peculiar galaxies were
in the universe. Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov
in the late 1950s and Halton Arp in the early
1960s systematically scanned the Palomar
Observatory Sky Survey to get a better
handle on the number of galactic oddities
throughout the cosmos. Unfortunately, the
Cartwheel Galaxy’s –33° declination in
Sculptor put it too low for their search.
Today, astronomers know significantly
more about galactic collisions and how they
THOR’S HELMET affect structure and star formation. The sym-
metry of this system indicates a smaller com-
Thor’s Helmet (NGC 2359) is an emission nebula in Canis Major that has panion passed through the center of a larger
been relegated to obscurity by the brighter Orion Nebula (M42) in the same spiral galaxy. The gravitational effect is similar
part of the sky. Like many HII regions, though, NGC 2359 is a fascinating to a shock wave shaped like a ring. As the
object and worthy of attention from all deep-sky observers. shock moved out through the spiral arms, it
Between 12,000 and 15,000 light-years away, Thor’s Helmet is roughly 10 swept up and compressed dust and gas, dis-
times more distant than M42. This cloud is about 30 light-years across and rupting the original spiral structure and creat-
surrounds Wolf-Rayet star WR7 (HD 56925). Compared to our Sun, this star ing many new stars. (Hence, the Cartwheel is
is 280,000 times brighter, 16 times more massive, and 1.3 times larger. It’s considered a starburst galaxy.) The angular
emitting copious radiation, typical of short-lived massive stars that end in momentum of the larger galaxy’s disk was not
a blazing supernova explosion. This might be one of those rare stars that eliminated, so a new spiral form is returning.
has already exploded but the light of its supernova hasn’t reached us yet. In addition to the outer ring, the nuclear
Cassiopeia’s Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) is a similar object, though less region also has a torus of young stars and a
pronounced. Thor’s Helmet has bright “wings” and a more complex shape dust cloud, giving this object a double ring.
due to interactions with adjacent molecular clouds. Thousands of solar There are three companion spiral galaxies,
masses of gas lie within this nebula complex. Images show six projections of two close by and a third that is more distant.
ionized gas, of which I’ve visually seen three using a 20-inch telescope from The distant companion has a trail of neutral
the Florida Keys. hydrogen connecting it to the Cartwheel, and
To locate NGC 2359, scan about 9° northeast of Sirius. This object is is thought to be the hit-and-run instigator.
smack on the galactic plane. The nebula is easy to find with an 8-inch tele- This system lies a half-billion light-years
scope. The wings require a slightly larger aperture but aren’t too difficult. away. It has a low surface brightness, making
NGC 2361 is a bright feature on the round top of the helmet. Other neighbors it a difficult magnitude 15.2 object. It lies
in the same part of the sky include the open clusters NGC 2374 about 1.5° roughly 5° degrees east of the Sculptor Dwarf,
SSRO/PROMPT/CTIO
east, Haffner 6 about 0.5° east, and Basel 11A about 1° southwest. a member of the Local Group. — A.G.
The winter Milky Way is often missed due to frigid observing conditions,
but this weird object is worth a look. — A.G.
GUM
NEBULA
73 farther edge some 1,500
light-years away. For com-
parison, the more familiar
Orion Nebula (M42) is
P. HORÁLEK/ESO, CROPPED BY SZCZUREQ/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Gum Nebula does not about 1,350 light-years
carry this name because it distant and 24 light-years
looks like celestial bubble wide. In the sky, M42
gum. Instead, it was named appears roughly 1° across
after its discoverer, Colin S. (the width of two Full
Gum, an Australian astron- Moons). Its greater density
omer who published a list and surface brightness
of hydrogen clouds (called make it easy to see with
HII regions) in 1955. The the naked eye.
Gum Nebula (12 in his cata- Gum 12 is a bit of an
log) is the largest emission oddity. Astronomers spec-
nebula in the sky, spanning ulate it is a million-year-
about 36° in the constella- old supernova remnant
tions Vela and Puppis. rather than an HII region.
That’s the width of 72 Full Moons! Yet it contains cometary globules — star-forming regions with tail-like
How could such a large object remain unknown until 1955? features — found in many emission nebulae. It also contains the rem-
Its surface brightness is too faint for visual observation. Perhaps nants of the Vela supernova, estimated to be just 11,000 years old.
it was photographed by others, but Gum found it while creating One other curious piece of trivia about the Gum Nebula: It was
a systematic catalog of southern HII regions, so his name stuck photographed by the Apollo 16 astronauts using high-speed film,
(if you will pardon the pun). through the window of their capsule during the darkest part of their
The Gum Nebula is estimated to be 1,000 light-years across, flight, while the Sun and Earth were both behind the Moon from their
putting the nearest edge only 450 light-years from us and the point of view. — A.G.
74 KEPLER’S SUPERNOVA
The time for visually observing Kepler’s Supernova
(CTB 41) passed nearly 420 years ago. In 1604,
Kepler’s Star was the last supernova in our galaxy
visible to the naked eye. Tycho’s Star, another
Milky Way supernova, was in 1572, only 32 years
earlier.
Despite its name, Johannes Kepler didn’t dis-
cover it. The observer Lodovico delle Colombe
noted it on Oct. 9, 1604. Kepler didn’t see De Stella
Nova, as he called it, until the 17th, when it blazed
to magnitude –2.5 in Ophiuchus and was visible in
the daytime for several weeks. He made meticu-
lous observations over the course of a year until it
faded from naked-eye visibility. His observations
were published in 1606 in De stella nova in pede
serpentarii (On the new star in Ophiuchus’ foot).
The progenitor star in this type Ia supernova
is thought to have been closer than 20,000 light-
years, located near the edge of the nearby dark
nebula complex Barnard 268–270 (which some-
what resembles Snoopy from Peanuts). If this
supernova had been a half-degree east, it might
have remained invisible, all light blocked by these
dust clouds.
Today, the supernova remnant is very bright
at radio and X-ray wavelengths. But it’s not a
younger version of the famous Crab Nebula (M1)
in Taurus. The Crab was created by the type II
supernova blast resulting from the death of a sin-
NASA, ESA, THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA)
gle massive star, and observationally doesn’t look

the same. By contrast, type Ia supernovae like
Kepler’s occur when a white dwarf in a binary sys-
tem siphons material from its companion until a
runaway thermonuclear reaction causes the white
dwarf to explode. Some filaments were noted in
1941, when astronomers discovered the remnant
associated with the blast, now glowing at 19th
magnitude. — A.G.
75 GIUSEPPE DONATIELLO
GALACTIC CENTER They also determined where our galaxy’s nucleus is

located and that it has a massive black hole in the center.
At –29° in declination, our Milky Way’s galactic center — You can point a telescope in the direction of the Milky
located in Sagittarius — is low for most Northern Hemisphere Way’s nucleus, but you can’t see it. Why? Try looking at
observers. It passes straight overhead in winter for those in your neighbor’s back porch light from the front yard of their
southern Australia; South Africa; and parts of Argentina, Brazil, house with all the doors and windows closed. You might be
and Chile. able to tell if it’s on by the light shining on the trees in the
Astronomers know a lot about barred spiral galaxies like the backyard, but the light fixture itself is obscured.
Milky Way from observing many examples (such as M83). A That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look in this direction;
nucleus forms the core, surrounded by a central hub and flat knowing what’s hidden behind the rich star field makes it
disk. Astronomers have used many tools to map the Milky Way worth the effort. Within 2° of the galactic center are at least
in three dimensions. Harlow Shapley used globular clusters to three open clusters, an emission nebula, and a planetary
determine the Sun was about 30,000 light-years from the center. nebula. These include Collinder 347, a magnitude 8.8 cluster
(Modern measurements give 26,000 light-years.) Others mapped involved with the emission nebula Sharpless 2–16. A degree
superluminous giant stars. Radio astronomers had the most suc- northeast is Collinder 351. A small dark nebula lies to its
cess since radio waves are transparent to stars and nebulae. west. Scan the region and see what else you can find. — A.G.
THE VELA SUPERNOVA REMNANT
This vast wreath of glowing gas was
ejected after a massive star went super-
SNR is a target for wide-field astroimagers,
as this spread of wispy threads spans 4.5°
76
nova around 11,000 years ago in the con- of sky. The Pencil Nebula (see #52) is its
stellation Vela the Sails. Lying over 800 brightest segment. Two other sections are
light-years away, the supernova’s filamen- worth targeting under very dark skies with
tary remains are scattered across the sky. larger apertures. The first is a narrow
One of the closest cosmic cataclysms to 1'-long streak of light, oriented northwest-
our Sun, it is also among the most historic. southeast, around R.A. 8h32m, Dec.
In the mid-1950s, astronomers found in –45°30'; this feature will extend into a
Vela one of the largest radio sources in the 4'-long crescent with greater apertures.
heavens. Not until 1960 did they link the The other is a pale phantom filament
radio source to a filamentary nebula visible (oriented east-west) a few arcminutes
in optical wavelengths — what we now call northwest of 4th-magnitude e Velorum
the Vela supernova remnant (SNR). Eight (HD 73634).
years later, Australian astronomers raised To explain the object’s haphazard
the possibility that the Vela Pulsar, a 23rd- structure, European Southern Observatory
magnitude neutron star, was the source astronomers have proposed a scenario in
of the remnant. This was one of the first which multiple objects have interacted
proposals indicating that neutron stars are with the Vela SNR, including the binary
forged in the aftermath of certain types of system Gamma2 (γ2) Velorum, the IRAS
supernova explosions. Vela Shell, the Vela OB2 association, and
Without question, much of the Vela the Gum Nebula (see #73). — S.J.O.
KAPTEYN’S STAR TADPOLE GALAXY

Kapteyn’s Star, a Dim, distant, and distorted, the Tadpole Galaxy (UGC 10214) in
9th-magnitude red the constellation Draco the Dragon is a nearly edge-on barred
DIGITAL SKY SURVEY/CENTRE DE DONNÉES ASTRONOMIQUES DE STRASBOURG
subdwarf, speeds through spiral galaxy sporting a massive tail of stars that stretches
space with a proper across 280,000 light-years of space. Apparently, 100 million
motion second only to years ago a small compact spiral galaxy crossed in front of
Barnard’s Star (see #46). UGC 10214 (as seen from our perspective on Earth some
This nomadic wonder is 420 million light-years distant), and their mutual gravitational
visible in the northern pulls resulted in an extragalactic collision.
reaches of the constellation When a large galaxy smashes into a smaller one, the smaller
Pictor the Painter. The star galaxy’s stars are either incorporated into the larger galaxy or
moves to the southeast ejected into intergalactic space. When UGC 10214 took hold of
at 8.7" per year, or the the mini-spiral, it swung the smaller galaxy some 300,000 light-
apparent diameter of the years behind its “back.” In the process, tidal forces ripped away
Moon every two centuries. the smaller galaxy’s stars, gas, and dust, stringing them out in
77
The star’s rapid apparent a long tadpolelike tail — instigating prodigious star formation
motion is due to its along the tidal tail and in UGC 10214’s arms. As it ages, the
proximity (12.8 light-years Tadpole Galaxy will likely lose its tail. Meanwhile, some of the
away) and its high velocity clusters within the tail will become orbiting satellites of UGC
(150 miles per second [245 km/s]) toward our Sun. 10214, while others
Kapteyn’s Star is also the nearest star to our Sun that does not will perhaps be
78
NASA, H. FORD (JHU), G. ILLINGWORTH (USCS/LO), M. CLAMPIN (STSCI), G. HARTIG (STSCI),
belong to the Milky Way’s disk but to its halo, the spherical compo- consumed by the
nent of the galaxy made of older stars with fewer heavy elements. barred spiral.
Peculiarly, Kapteyn’s Star orbits our galaxy backwards. Astronomers You’ll find UGC
now believe the star may have once belonged to a dwarf galaxy 10214 about 3°
consumed by the Milky Way early on in its history — the same south of Theta
dwarf galaxy that is now the great globular star cluster Omega (θ) Draconis. It
Centuri. In 2014, it was announced that Kapteyn’s Star had two pos- shines dimly at
sible planets, one of which, Kapteyn c, is a Neptune-like exoplanet. magnitude 14.6,
The star owes its discovery to the efforts of two individuals. In so 12-inch or
1897, Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn noticed that a star was larger telescopes
missing on a photographic plate taken at Cape Observatory in and powers
THE ACS SCIENCE TEAM, AND ESA
South Africa. The Scottish astronomer Robert Innes solved the between 150x and
mystery when he found the missing star east of its original position 200x will serve
while surveying the southern stars from the Cape with a 7-inch observers best, as
refractor. — S.J.O. will extremely dark
skies and excel-
lent transparency.
— S.J.O.
HAREL BOREN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
80 SKYVIEW AND CALTECH/STSCI; COLOR IMAGE PROCESSING BY W. RENZ
this map onto the combined X-ray and

P CYGNI
THE BULLET optical images revealed that its mass P Cygni is a remarkable novalike luminous
CLUSTER does not line up with the observed blue variable — a blue supergiant or even a
matter, implying that the observed hypergiant so massive it’s barely holding itself
The Bullet Cluster is a massive collection gravitational lensing must be created together. With a mass up to 60 times that of
of two large groups of galaxies some by invisible, or dark, matter, which is the Sun, this behemoth is a beacon of lumi-
3.8 billion light-years distant. The two not subject to the same drag forces as nosity about a half-million to a million times
groups appear to have collided in one of the gas. brighter than our star; P Cygni is, in fact, one
the most energetic events known in the Why are these groups called the of the most luminous stars known in our gal-
universe since the Big Bang. Bullet Custer? Because a sub-cluster, axy. Lying some 6,500 light-years distant,
The aftermath has provided dramatic the “bullet,” has collided with the main 5th-magnitude P Cygni is also one of the
evidence for the existence of dark matter. cluster, approximately in the plane of most distant stars one can see with the
In 2006, astronomers published data from the sky, producing a strong bow shock unaided eyes under a dark sky — as long as
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory that in the intracluster gas during the colli- it doesn’t decide to fade, which it has in the
show how the collision heated the existing sion. In images, it appears like a snap- past.
gas to millions of degrees. They also shot of a bullet piercing an apple. You’ll The star first appeared on the celestial
obtained optical images with the Hubble find the cluster (or not, because it is scene Aug. 18, 1600, when Dutch astronomer
Space Telescope as well as the Very Large extremely dim) in Carina the Keel, about Willem Janszoon Blaeu saw it shining forth
Telescope and Magellan Telescope in 6° east-southeast of the brilliant star as a “new” 3rd-magnitude star near Sadr
Chile. By studying the combined cluster’s Canopus. Like dark matter, the cluster’s (Gamma [γ] Cygni). It remained bright for
gravitational lensing effects — the bending brightest members are likely to be virtu- several years before episodically fading in
and magnifying of light from objects ally invisible to most visual observers, and out of naked-eye view — until around
behind it — astronomers were able to map as they shine around magnitude 20 and 1715, when its light settled on the edge of
out the Bullet Cluster’s mass. An overlay of fainter. — S.J.O. naked-eye visibility, where it remains today.
Seen through binoculars and backyard
79
telescopes, P Cygni is an unassuming sight,
a speck of sapphire starlight. What’s invisible
NASA/CXC/CFA/M. MARKEVITCH; OPTICAL AND LENSING MAP: NASA/STSCI,
to our eyes are the shells of dust and gas that

P Cygni has been erratically ejecting from its
MAGELLAN/U. OF ARIZONA/D. CLOWE; LENSING MAP: ESO WFI
surface for some 20,000 years. Today the star

continues to lose mass steadily at some
300 million times the rate of our Sun via the
solar wind. P Cygni’s strong winds, however,
form expanding shells that show up like fin-
gerprints in the star’s spectrum as an odd
pairing of adjacent emission and absorption
features, now known as the P Cygni profile.
One day, P Cygni will erupt as a supernova
and likely subsequently collapse into a black
hole. — S.J.O.
ABELL 194
Abell 194 is a tight cluster of 100 or more galaxies about 250
million light-years distant in Cetus the Whale, and about 1°
southeast of 7th-magnitude 43 Ceti. The cluster’s heart harbors 10
objects from the New General Catalogue shining roughly between
magnitudes 12 and 13.5. Seven of these are arranged in a line
along with several fainter objects, oriented northeast-southwest.
They stretch across 30' of sky like a piece of extragalactic thread.
The cluster’s brightest member is also the most peculiar.
Shining at 12th-magnitude, NGC 541 has a long radio jet that
appears to be interacting with a blue dwarf galaxy (Minkowski’s
Object) just 1' to the east-northeast. Recent studies have shown
that the dwarf’s young stellar population (roughly 7.5 million years
82
old) suggests that NGC 541’s jet either induced hot, young blue
ESO/Y. BELETSKY
stars to form in clumps of gas in a stellar bridge that connects
with Minkowski’s Object, or it heightened the dwarf galaxy’s star
formation rate by directly interacting with it.
Many fainter galaxies make up the rest of Abell 194. Observers
using moderate to large telescopes have plumbed the depths
of this cluster, which offers a bright congregation of galaxies to JEWEL BOX CLUSTER
amateur astronomers. I’m not aware of any visual observations of
Minkowski’s Object, however. Sighting it would be a great chal- One of the gems of the night, the Jewel Box Cluster (NGC
lenge for monster-scope users, especially at star parties. — S.J.O. 4755) appears to dangle from the eastern arm of the Southern
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE, [APF6-03654], HANNA HOLBORN
Cross like a pearl earring. Early explorers first saw it as a
GRAY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY 4th-magnitude star, leading Johann Bayer to label it in his 1603
81
Uranometria catalog as Kappa (κ) Crucis. Its identity remained
singular until Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille used a ½-inch
telescope to resolve it into half a dozen stars during his 1751–1753
exploration of the southern skies from the Cape of Good Hope.
Its “Jewel Box” moniker derives from a description by John
Herschel who called it a “casket of variously coloured precious
stones.”
Today all one needs is a binoculars or a small telescope to
see the cluster’s sapphire and ruby gems set against the black
marble of dust in the Coalsack Nebula (see #89). This intervening
dust makes the cluster’s distance difficult to determine, while a
mysterious mix of youthful blue stars and aged red supergiants
makes its evolutionary age uncertain. Conservative estimates,
however, place the cluster some 6,400 light-years distant, with an
age somewhere between 7 million and 16 million years.
Most backyard telescopes will reveal only a fraction of its 100-
plus brightest members, which are crammed into an area only 10'
across. Through a telescope, the cluster appears to have two
groups: one bright, one faint. Is the Jewel Box a melding of two
star clusters or a visual line-of-sight oddity? — S.J.O.
THE CLOVERLEAF
83
away, the Cloverleaf quasar is one
of the most distant objects known to
The Cloverleaf is a 17th-magnitude quasar possess a large amount of cold molec-
whose image has been reproduced ular gas (notably carbon monoxide),
four times through gravitational which appears to be surrounding the
lensing — an occurrence caused by the quasar in a rotating disk. This molecu-
powerful gravitational field of a massive, lar gas complex has an infrared mass
intervening galaxy, which has bent and of some 10 billion Suns, which, when
magnified the light from this distant combined with the object’s active
quasar to produce the multiple images galactic nucleus, provides evidence
we see. there was abundant material and
Equally fascinating is that in X-ray ample conditions for large-scale star
imaging by NASA’s Chandra orbiting formation in the early universe.
NASA/CXC/PENN STATE/G. CHARTAS ET AL
telescope, one of the four quasar images The Cloverleaf quasar lies about 8°
appears brighter than the others — an south of brilliant Arcturus in Boötes,
effect likely caused by microlensing, and roughly 1° north of the 12th-
where a single or binary star in the inter- magnitude galaxy NGC 5532. Large
vening galaxy has passed directly in front amateur telescopes should be able to
of the supermassive black hole at the detect the optical quasar but resolving
quasar’s heart. it is another matter, requiring crisp
What’s more, at 11 billion light-years sub-arcsecond resolution. — S.J.O.
84 NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA
85
ETA CARINAE EINSTEIN
Eta Carinae, the fire opal wonder of the CROSS
southern skies, currently shines as a
4th-magnitude star system nested in the The Einstein Cross
vast Carina Nebula. It is one of the seven (Huchra’s Lens) is one
wonders of the deep southern skies. The of the most profound
system is dynamic: The primary star is a examples of gravitational
hypergiant, roughly 100 times the Sun’s lensing, a phenomenon first
mass and 4 million times its luminosity. deduced by Albert Einstein.
Through binoculars and telescopes, Eta Images of the Einstein
has a rich orange hue, which, unlike other Cross appear to be a galaxy
stars of its magnitude, seems to burn with with four nuclei; this is
a mysterious steady light, like a distant Mars. what Harvard University
When we look at this star, we are, in fact, not astronomer John Huchra
seeing a star at all, but the gaseous remains saw when he discovered
of the biggest explosion that any star is this bizarre object.
known to have survived in our galaxy. But these “nuclei” do ESA/HUBBLE & NASA
Historical records show that Eta Carinae not belong to the galaxy.
varied between magnitude 1 and 3 in the Instead, we are seeing the components vary in rela- combined lens shines as
late 1820s and early 1830s. Then, in 1843, way the gravitational field tive brightness. This micro- brightly as magnitude 14
it erupted to magnitude –0.7 (outshining of the galaxy PGC 69457 lensing effect occurs — or about the average
nearly all the night sky’s stars) before hitting (some 400 million light- whenever a star in the brightness of Pluto. Then
rock bottom in 1968 at magnitude 7.6. Today years distant) is lensing and foreground galaxy passes again, that light is spread
it hovers around magnitude 4. The 1843 magnifying the light of the in front of one of the qua- across 1.6'. The intervening
event sent out two opposing expanding quasar Q2237+0305 (some sar images, causing the galaxy shines around mag-
lobes, which squeezed out of a dense torus 8 billion light-years distant), image to temporarily nitude 15. High powers
of cold dust and gas before expanding like which happens to lie intensify. (400x to 600x) may show
a balloon inflating in a napkin ring. This directly behind the galaxy You’ll find Huchra’s it best.
weird figure-8 pattern is known as the along our line of sight. The Lens in Pegasus about Several amateur
Homunculus Nebula. Through a 4-inch gravitational lens (the 2.5° southeast of 37 astronomers have suc-
telescope at high power, the southern galaxy) is breaking the Pegasi. While the bright- ceeded in separating two
observer Ernst Hartung saw the quasar’s light into four ness of the components components with tele-
Homunculus as an “orange-red nebula distinct images of the can range anywhere from scopes as small as 18
about 3" wide.” When I saw it in 1982 same object in a crosslike magnitude 15.5 to 18.5 inches. The fainter compo-
through the 9-inch refractor at Carter arrangement. depending on microlensing nents likely require 24-inch
Observatory, it looked like two puffs 1' on Equally bizarre is that effects, some observers and larger telescopes.
either side of an intense core of light. — S.J.O. occasionally, the lensed have estimated the — S.J.O.
THE BOOMERANG
NEBULA
The Boomerang Nebula is one of the most
puzzling bipolar reflection nebulae known.
It lies 5,000 light-years distant in Centaurus,
just 3⅓° north-northeast of Gacrux (Gamma
[γ] Crucis) in the Southern Cross.
The Boomerang looks similar to other
objects of its kind, displaying two nearly
symmetrical wings of dust and gas that span
only 1' of sky (or about 1.5 light-years at its
distance of 5,000 light-years). But unlike oth-
ers of its kind, the Boomerang’s central star is
86 ALAN DYER
ejecting jets of matter from its poles at a rate
that’s up to 100 times greater than normal (or
10 billion times faster than our Sun at pres-
ent). What’s more, the nebula’s deep interior
THE COMA has a temperature of only 1 degree Celsius
above absolute zero (nearly minus 460
GALAXY CLUSTER comprising 98 percent dark matter
degrees Fahrenheit), making it one of the
and just 2 percent observable matter.
coldest known natural environments in
The Coma Cluster of galaxies is among Astronomers posit that when the great
the universe.
the densest known. This turbulent array gravitational pull of the Coma Cluster
We are likely seeing a rapidly dying red
of more than 3,000 galaxies (mostly dragged these infants into its fold 7 bil-
giant star transitioning into a planetary
ellipticals and lenticulars) forms a lion years ago, it stripped them of their
nebula. The star has swelled to consume
dim backdrop to the brighter Coma gas and dust — the ingredients needed
a smaller companion star that eventually
Berenices star cluster. Lying 330 million to form new stars. The fact that these
merged with its core, causing a violent and
light-years distant, it is the nearest galaxies held together for so long sug-
rapid ejection of material that is expanding so
massive cluster of galaxies, parading gests they must harbor lots of dark
fast it has rapidly cooled, becoming a cosmic
across more than 20 million light-years matter; otherwise the gravitational pull
freezer.
of space. While the galaxies house of other galaxies in the cluster would
Despite the seemingly dire description,
billions of stars, a weird collection of have torn them apart. Exactly how much
the nebula is surprisingly bright. It was so
nearly 50 cluster members appears dark matter they possess remains dis-
apparent in my 8-inch telescope that I imme-
to be almost invisible. These ghostlike puted as it is not an easy feat to mea-
diately set up my 3-inch Tele Vue refractor
objects appear to be rich in invisible sure their mass.
and was able to see it, especially at moderate
dark matter — matter that cannot be Reasonably bright objects in the
to high magnifications. The nebula appears
seen but whose presence is inferred Coma Cluster of galaxies are within
similar to the Double Bubble Nebula
from gravitational effects. reach of a 12-inch telescope under a
(NGC 2371/2) in Gemini. — S.J.O.
While no one knows how these oddi- dark sky: NGC 4889, 4793, and 4874.
ties originated, recent studies suggest Larger apertures will reveal untold num- BILL SAXTON (NRAO/AUI/NSF); NASA/HUBBLE; RAGHVENDRA SAHAI
bers of additional wonders. — S.J.O.
88
they may be “failed” infant galaxies
WOLF 359
Lying at a distance of only 7.9 light-years, Wolf 359 is the fifth closest star to our Sun,
moving 4.7" per year against the background stars of Leo. Shining at magnitude 13.5, this
red dwarf has a mass of 0.09 solar mass, making it one of the lowest-mass stars known.
Like many red dwarfs, Wolf 359 can undergo sudden increases in brightness before
returning to normal within a few minutes. In 1950, German astronomer Hans-Ullrich
Sandig became the first person to detect one such flare, noting “the star always 13.5 …
was about 1 magnitude brighter than usual.” As this was the first evening he observed
the star, he could not “say anything about the duration of the brightening.”
Since that initial event, astronomers have studied flare-rate activity across the star’s
spectrum, finding that eruptions occur about once every two hours on average. While
most of these are micro-events, only increasing by fractions of a magnitude, about 10
times a year Wolf 359 undergoes a superflare. This is when the star’s brightness soars
one magnitude or more, as Sandig observed. More recently, on March 20, 2022, the
star achieved visual magnitude 11.6.
87
While the cause of Wolf 359’s
rapid flare production remains uncer-
tain, astronomers think it could be
enhanced magnetic activity linked to
either the star’s rapid spin (once every
2.7 days) or interaction with possible
exoplanets. However, no exoplanets
have been confirmed around Wolf 359
ROBERT J. VANDERBEI
as of yet; two candidates were

reported in 2019, but one was found
to be a false positive in 2021. — S.J.O.
COALSACK
NEBULA
The naked-eye wonder of the Southern
Cross is only overshadowed by its ink-
black neighbor, the Coalsack Nebula.
One of the most popular dark nebulae
in the heavens, the Coalsack is roughly
the same size and shape as Crux (about
5° by 7°), darkening the surrounding
Milky Way like a black fog at the foot
of the Cross. Probably known since
humans first pondered the stars, this
void appears in many legends, including
those of Botswana’s Basarwa people,
ESO/S. BRUNIER
89
who envisioned it as the head of the dark
Giraffe.
Sometimes referred to as the Black
Magellanic Cloud, this nebula can seem
like a vacancy left behind after its matter but a conglomerate of two overlapping near 5th-magnitude BZ Crucis; the cluster
was used to form a nearby star cluster dark clouds at distances of 610 and 790 is not associated with the Coalsack but
(in this case the Jewel Box [see #82]). light-years. Stare steadily at it under a lies some five times more distant.
However, we now know that these dark dark sky (especially through binoculars or By the way, the intensity of the
areas are cold dusty clouds of molecular a wide-field telescope) and you will see it Coalsack is created by a contrast illusion
hydrogen gas that dim the light of what- consists of several charred ribs — parallel where dark nebulosity happens to be sur-
ever lurks behind them. trails of darkness like celestial shadow rounded by a brilliant swath of Milky Way.
When we look upon the Coalsack, we bands. Use binoculars or a telescope to spy Place the Coalsack among the stars of
are likely not seeing a single sheet of dust, the 7th-magnitude open cluster NGC 4609 Cygnus and it would lose its luster. — S.J.O.
T TAURI
T Tauri is the prototype of an irregular class of
variable stars found only in nebulae and young
clusters. English astronomer John Russell
90
Hind discovered T Tauri and its associated
nebulosity (NGC 1555; 1' west) on Oct. 11, 1852,
while searching for minor planets with a 7-inch
refractor. The next day, he announced his findings
in the Astronomische Nachrichten: “Last night I
noticed a very small nebulous-looking object in
[Taurus, just north of the Hyades near Epsilon]: it
was south-preceding a star of 10th mag, which, to
my surprise, has escaped insertion on the map for
4h R.A. recently published — possibly [the star]
may be variable.”
Curiously, while the variations of T Tauri
appear to be linked to changes in the brightness
T.A. RECTOR/UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE, H. SCHWEIKER/WIYN AND NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA
of the nebula, their erratic behaviors are not in

sync. Of T Tauri’s fluctuations, Mount Wilson
Observatory astronomer Alfred Joy wrote in 1945,
“The variations in light of the T Tauri stars are so
irregular and unpredictable that classification by
means of their light curves is practically
impossible.”
T Tauri sporadically jumped from magnitude
9.3 to 14 between 1864 and 1916. Over the last
half-century, data from the American Association
of Variable Star Observers show that while
T Tauri’s brightness varies by a few tenths of a
magnitude every day, its general long-term trend
shows it randomly fluctuating between magnitude
9.3 and 12.
T Tauri is a newly formed star less than 10 mil-
lion years old, with a mass less than three Suns. Its
behavior may be due to activity in the star’s atmo-
sphere, or perhaps remaining dust and gas from
the nebula in which it was conceived, which can
temporarily obscure light streaming from the star.
So be prepared for anything when you look. — S.J.O.
RR LYRAE
RR Lyrae, an old yellow giant star
850 light-years distant in northwest
Lyra, near the border of Cygnus, is the
prototype of one of the most important
classes of pulsating variable stars.
RR Lyrae-type stars can be used as
standards for measuring distances
in space, especially for globular
clusters. Harvard College Observatory
astronomer Williamina Fleming
discovered RR Lyrae itself while
examining a photographic plate taken
on July 13, 1899. Further investigation
showed the star varying in brightness
every 13.6 hours from magnitude 7 to 8.
Fleming also noted that this vari-
able behaved like other variable stars
she had previously discovered in
92
globular star clusters; as RR Lyrae
ALAN DYER
was by far the brightest and easiest to
observe spectroscopically, it became
the eponym of the class. Her discovery
was, in fact, peculiar, as it was the first
RR Lyrae-type star to be discovered STREICHER 7 You’ll find this personal tribute among
outside of a cluster. the stars about 1.6° south of the dynamic
In 1916, Harvard astronomer Streicher 7, the Tiny Southern Cross asterism, NGC 2516, the Southern Beehive Cluster,
Harlow Shapley noted that the shape is the seventh asterism created by the one of the young open clusters that share
of RR Lyrae’s light curve and the tim- prolific writer and renowned South African common motion though space with the
ing of its peaks cycle through a span observer Magda Streicher. In her 2012 book Pleiades (M45).
of 40 days. The phenomenon became Astronomy Delights, she describes it as Streicher estimates the 6'-long asterism
known as the Blazhko effect, after a “group of stars that represents a small shines at magnitude 4, but it appears much
Russian astronomer Sergei Blazhko, constellation Crux impression, with the long fainter. As with the Southern Cross, the
who in 1907 first observed similar axis pointing towards the south-east. I am asterism has three stars of similar brightness,
behavior in the RR-Lyrae-type variable dedicating this asterism to a very special with the southernmost being the brightest
RW Draconis. To this day, astronomers person, Carla (le Roux) Graham. She lost her (and reddest). The fourth, fainter star of the
do not have an adequate understand- battle with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2010, Cross marks its western arm, while the faint
ing of what causes the effect. and my sincere wish is that the stars in this one in Streicher 7 marks the eastern arm.
Shapley also used RR Lyrae-type cross may shine brightly in thought of her The long axis of Streicher 7 points to the
variables to systematically determine memory and the legacy she left behind.” southeast. — S.J.O.
the distance and distribution of globu-
lar clusters around our galaxy. This
study led him to believe that the Milky
Way is 300,000 light-years in diam-
eter and that our Sun was not at the
center, but rather some 60,000 light-
93
years from it. While he was off by a
factor of 2 or 3, he had the basic pic-
ture right. — S.J.O.
ROBERT J. VANDERBEI
91

SOUTHERN PLEIADES
Just 4½° due south of Eta Carinae, at the northern tip of the Diamond
Cross asterism, lies the 2nd-magnitude open star cluster IC 2602. Popularly known
as the Southern Pleiades, it shines forth as the fifth-brightest open cluster in the
entire heavens. This island of starlight harbors at least 60 members spread across
50' of sky; some 30 of these stars shine brighter than 9th magnitude. And while the
view of the cluster is dominated by the light of 3rd-magnitude Theta (θ) Carinae,
ironically, that star is not a part of the group.
So why the Southern Pleiades moniker? Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille thought
this sparkling aggregation of largely blue-white diamonds looked “like the Pleiades”
through his diminutive ½-inch 8x telescope. Using optical aid is the key — without
question, the Southern Pleiades looks best through binoculars.
What’s weird is that the southern and northern Pleiades are, in their natures, near
twins. Both are youthful, between 50 million and 100 million years young, respec-
tively. The Southern Pleiades lies roughly 480 light-years away, while the Pleiades
lies 448 light-years distant. Both sport at least 10 stars of 6th magnitude or brighter
— though the remaining number of bright stars in the Pleiades trumps those of its
southern rival. — S.J.O.
94 95
NASA, H. FORD (JHU), G. ILLINGWORTH (UCSC/LO), M. CLAMPIN (STSCI),
G. HARTIG (STSCI), THE ACS SCIENCE TEAM, AND ESA
MICE GALAXIES
The Mice Galaxies (NGC 4676 A and B; also
cataloged as Arp 242) are a close-knit pair of
roughly 14th-magnitude spiral galaxies engaged
in a tidal embrace. Their name refers to their two
tremendously long tails of stars and gas, one
extending from each body.
Structures formed by clumps of stars sepa-
rated by expanses of dim matter in the longer
of the two tails have led astronomers to believe
that the two galaxies already passed through
ALAN DYER
one another hundreds of millions of years ago.

Computer simulations have confirmed this sce-
nario and suggest we are now seeing the Mice
approximately 160 million years after that event.
As they are still tidally attracted to one another,
they will likely repeat their slow-motion dance,
ATOMS FOR PEACE GALAXY passing through one another multiple times over
the next billion years until they coalesce to form
Imagine a face-on spiral galaxy lying at the center of a thick, spiraling a single elliptical galaxy.
ring of dust. Now place these at the center of a vast sphere of alternating Chandra X-ray Observatory images have
concentric rings of gas and dust, across which slice several ghostly arms, detected strong starburst-driven winds from the
rich in star formation, and pendulous matter at the ends. Put it all together minor axis of each galaxy. This finding is totally
and you have NGC 7252 in Aquarius, one of the most bizarre extragalactic unexpected in such a rapidly evolving and turbu-
sights in the universe. lent merger; it is, in fact, the first time that such a
The diminutive (2' x 1.5') galaxy lies about 200 million light-years distant. hot gaseous outflow has ever been seen in a full-
It shines at 12th magnitude, so moderate to large apertures will see it best. blown merger.
Still, you’ll have to use your imagination to “see” the wonder of it all — The galaxies lie some 290 million light-years
namely the dramatic aftermath of two spiral galaxies in an advanced stage distant in the Coma Galaxy Cluster (see #86).
of merging. You’ll find them about 4.8° east-northeast of
The main body of the galaxy (the blue spiral in the center) is a single- Gamma (γ) Comae Berenices and 1.5° south-
nucleus merger remnant. The merger caused significant star formation in southeast of the magnificent magnitude 10.5
NASA & ESA; ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: JUDY SCHMIDT (GECKZILLA)
both the nuclear remnant and the galaxy’s outskirts some 600 million to barred spiral galaxy NGC 4656, popularly known
700 million years ago. The observed formations have led astronomers to as the Hockey Stick Galaxy.
believe that this galaxy merger is in the initial stages of evolving into an Larry Mitchell of Houston showed me the
elliptical galaxy — perhaps a blue, star-forming elliptical galaxy, which Mice through his 24-inch telescope at the 1986
astronomers have found at much greater distances. Texas Star Party, but it wasn’t until the 1999 Texas
NGC 7252’s nickname seems a bit out of place. It honors the name of Star Party — after gaining experience with deep-
a speech President Eisenhower gave in 1953, in which he promoted sky observing — that I was able to detect the tails
nuclear power for peaceful purposes. That speech, combined with the through the same instrument. How small of a
fact that NGC 7252’s appearance recalls the orbits of electrons around telescope can you use to detect the Mice and
the nucleus of an atom, led to the galaxy’s moniker — though the reality their tails? — S.J.O.
of mergers is anything but peaceful. — S.J.O.
M87 photographic plate of the galaxy and noted
the jet as a ray of light emerging from the
M87 stands apart from its roughly 2,000 galaxy. As a visual target, it’s an observing
neighbors in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies challenge of the tallest order; it wasn’t until
for a number of reasons. For one, this years later that Otto Struve finally sighted
supergiant elliptical is one of the most the 5,000-light-year-long feature using the
massive in our local universe, housing 100-inch telescope at Mount Wilson. The
100 billion stars with a total mass nearing first amateur visual detection was made
2 trillion Suns. But perhaps it is most by Barbara Wilson in her 20-inch reflector
96
famous for what lies at its core: one of the at the Texas Star Party in 1991.
best-studied supermassive black holes, Your view of this galaxy from your own
and the first to have its shadow captured backyard will likely be a little more typical:
in a photograph. That groundbreaking NASA, ESA, AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA); a glowing orb with a fuzzy outer shell. It
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: P. COTE (HERZBERG INSTITUTE OF ASTROPHYSICS)
image of the 6.5-billion-solar-mass black AND E. BALTZ (STANFORD UNIVERSITY) sits about 3½° northwest of Rho (ρ) Virginis
hole, named M87*, was released in April glowing at magnitude 9.7 and spanning 7'.
2019 by the team behind the Event Horizon of M87 is the jet of matter being expelled Only 10' southwest of the object is a dim-
Telescope, an international network of radio from its central black hole’s surroundings mer elliptical, 11th-magnitude NGC 4478,
telescopes. at nearly the speed of light. In 1918, which may require moderate to high mag-
Also famously appearing in photographs Heber Curtis at Lick Observatory took a nification to see well. — S.J.O.
URSA MAJOR MOVING GROUP

The seven brightest stars in the constellation Ursa Major comprise one
of the brightest and most recognized star patterns in the night sky: the
Big Dipper or Plough. The five stars between (but excluding) Dubhe in
the Big Dipper’s bowl and the tip of its handle (Alkaid) mark the core
of the Ursa Major Moving Group — the closest gathering of stars to
Earth that share a common origin.
Lying 80 light-years away, the group also contains nine fainter
members. A wider stream of roughly 46 associates are spread across
the sky. These include the binary star Menkalinan in Auriga as well as
Adhafera in Leo. Gravity from passing clouds of dust and gas have
97
been slowly ripping this family apart like fizz from a seltzer tablet in
water.
One gem among them is the second star from the end of the Big
ESO Dipper’s handle (Mizar), which is a celebrated optical double. Early
Arabian skywatchers considered seeing Mizar’s 4th-magnitude com-
FU ORIONIS panion Alcor a test of visual acuity. In 2008, George M. Bohigian of
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri,
FU Orionis is the prototype of a class of novalike variables reported in Survey of Ophthalmology that this ancient test is approxi-
that undergo some of the most extreme variability mately equivalent to the modern metric of 20/20 vision. — S.J.O.
seen in pre-main sequence stars. FU Orionis and its
kin characteristically flare by several magnitudes over
a period of one to 10 years before dimming slowly over
98
20 to 100 years. The underlying cause of these flare-ups
remains unknown. One idea is that they are youthful stars
like T Tauri (see #90) that suddenly accrete a lot of mass
from its disk. Overloaded, the star material heats as it
is being absorbed, resulting in the visible brightening.
FU Orionis itself burst onto the scene in 1936, rising
from mid-16th magnitude by a factor of more than 100
in about 200 days. And it kept going: A year later, it had
increased in brightness by nearly 7 magnitudes (to magni-
tude 9.6). An optical arc of reflection nebulosity accompa-
nied the eruption and remains visible to this day. FU
Orionis also undergoes small amplitude flickering (perhaps
created by a jittering of magnetic jets), which may be the
stellar version of “growing pains” that all T Tauri stars
experience before settling down on the main sequence.
Astronomers remain keenly interested in FU Orionis
and others in its class as these stars may provide insight
into how stars evolve onto the main sequence and form
planetary systems. Presently shining at 9th magnitude,
FU Orionis is a great target for small telescope users,
especially as it lies about 2° east-southeast of 4th-
magnitude Phi2 (ϕ 2) Orionis. — S.J.O.
A. FUJII/HUBBLE

99 NASA, ESA, AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA)
NGC 5189 unlike other planetaries, NGC 5189 sports it would induce shock waves in the sur-
not two ansae, but five! NGC 5189’s shape rounding gas, creating the complex system
NGC 5189 is one of the more bizarre- is reminiscent of a lawn sprinkler, with mat- of knots and filamentary structure we see.
looking planetary nebulae, appearing more ter being expelled from the star, which is You’ll find this intriguing 10th-magnitude
like an exploding barred spiral galaxy wobbling as it rotates. planetary 1¾° southeast of magnitude 4.5
than a shell of gas released from a dying The bizarre structure could be a result of M Centauri. The nebula covers 2.5' of sky,
Sun-like star. Until the 1960s, this curious powerful polar outflows from an interacting which spreads out its light, resulting in a
object was believed to be an emission binary star system, whose components orbit low surface brightness. Under dark skies,
nebula. The reverse S-shape symmetry and one another once every four days at the a 4-inch telescope will reveal the nebula’s
hyper-chaotic knotty details of NGC 5189’s nebula’s core. Evidence is mounting that irregular structure, looking like a 1.5'-long
shells are the most puzzling morphological one of the companions is a rare low-mass knot of light about 5' northwest of a magni-
structures known among planetary Wolf-Rayet star with a mass equal to that of tude 7.5 star. At higher magnifications, the
nebulae. the Sun. This star is at an advanced stage object appears mottled and snakelike, slith-
NGC 5189 belongs to an extremely of evolution and losing mass at a very high ering through patches of space. The object
restricted class of these nebulae that rate. If this star had multiple outbursts (there stuns when viewed through a 12-inch scope,
exhibit ansae — small appendages on is evidence for at least three expanding bub- revealing its irregularities and winding
either side, giving the illusion of rings. But bles of hot gas), each at different velocities, extensions. — S.J.O.
TABBY’S STAR
Tabby’s Star is a mysterious Sun-like star some 1,500 light-years
distant in Cygnus the Swan, just a few arcminutes northeast of open
star cluster NGC 6866. But unlike our Sun, this 12th-magnitude star
dims randomly, by anything from 5 to 22 percent, for days at a time.
The phenomenon has left researchers baffled. If it were a giant
planet passing in front of the star, it would make more regular eclipses.
A Jupiter-sized planet would also only block about 1 percent of the
star’s light, meaning the planet would be unlike anything known.
100
What’s equally bizarre is that after American astronomer Tabetha
“Tabby” S. Boyajian discovered the star’s grand and irregular fluctua-
tions in 2015, follow-up observations by astronomers around the
world revealed that the overall magnitude of the star has been grad-
ually dimming over the years. How can this be? CENTRE DE DONNÉES ASTRONOMIQUES DE STRASBOURG/SIMBAD/DSS
Some proposed theories are believable, including brightness
changes intrinsic to the star, perhaps caused by its magnetism or by gravitational interactions with Tabby’s Star; as the moon came close
changes in heat flow in its interior. Others are more out there — like to the star, it disintegrated, sending dust clouds into stellar orbit. These
activities by an extraterrestrial race. One of the most plausible expla- dust and chunks of rock are now moving between us and Tabby’s Star
nations is that the dimming is caused by chunks of an orphaned in a clumpy cloud, which would at least explain the irregular brightness
exomoon. Such a moon could have been pulled away from its planet variations. Then again, who knows? — S.J.O.
STROTTNER-DRECHSLER-
SAINTY OBJECT 1
101 MARCEL DRECHSLER/XAVIER STROTTNER/YANN SAINTY
surprising that several observers have already claimed to have

seen it using telescopes as small as 2.4 inches and as large as
30 inches. But these are early days. The question is, what, if
Strottner-Drechsler-Sainty Object 1 (SDSO-1) is a newly discov- anything, can you see?
ered filamentary emission nebula 1.2° southeast of the Andromeda The origin of this 1.5° by 0.45° teal arc of ionized oxygen gas
Galaxy’s (M31) nucleus. In 2022, French astroimager Yann Sainty is still under investigation. Possibilities include an old planetary
used a 4-inch Takahashi refractor, a CMOS astronomical camera, nebula, supernova remnant, or some other gas structure in our
and a range of filters to capture a total of 111 hours of exposure of Milky Way, placing it in the foreground when we look at M31.
the galaxy. The faint glow revealed itself in data taken with an It could also be a feature in the halo of M31 itself — perhaps a
Oxygen-III (OIII) filter after Marcel Drechsler and Xavier Strottner shock caused by tidal interactions with our Milky Way. Or, it
processed and analyzed the data. could be a tail in a giant stellar stream formed when a satellite
While an untold number of imagers across the globe soon globular cluster or dwarf galaxy was torn apart and stretched
started to capture the plasma arc using an OIII filter and all out by Andromeda’s gravity. Currently, there is no explanation
manner of telescopes, it seemed only a matter of time before that completely explains the object’s origin. Who knows what
SDSO-1 became a target of visual interest. Indeed, given the visual other weird and mystifying objects amateur astronomers will
prowess and tenacity of today’s amateur astronomer, it’s not discover in the years to come? — S.J.O.

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SPECIAL ISSUE

JAN UARY 2024

The world’s best-selling astronomy magazine

Editor David J. Eicher

Weird = good Assistant Design Director Kelly Katlaps

Those were exciting times, not really knowing CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

had a clear sky on the first night, and so I took

For reprints, licensing, and permissions:

4 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024

2. Publication no.: 531-350

1. Publication title: ASTRONOMY ScopeBuggy

LIKE NEVER BEFORE

BE READY FOR THE

OTA L SOL AR ECLIPSE

SHOP ECLIPSE BOOKS TODAY AT

6 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024

ALPHA PERSEI CLUSTER NGC 4151

2 to the unaided eye and

been known since our ancient ancestors looked skyward,

4 detected joining two condensations, NGC

Their error did not become apparent for

HOAG’S OBJECT NGC 147 AND NGC 185

that a rare ring galaxy is seen in the gap

NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY

14 and how would this galaxy appear if we

regions where new stars are being born in

JERRY MACON. INSET: ADAM BLOCK

14 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024

in September 1792. He described the sight as “a

galaxy began in 1943, when Carl strange galactic plant — spread

Next, they measured how

from his skepticism of both the NGC 4319 is 80 million light-

16 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024

NASA/ESA AND BALICK ET AL.

between the two galaxies that occurred about 200 million

find it 31/2° northeast of lengths, those of Hydrogen-alpha (H α) and Oxygen-III (OIII).

which, at magnitude 16, is a lot fainter. makes it nearly impos-

target of SETI Institute searches, while some

with a slight orange hue. That said, Lalande 21185 is the

Observers call NGC 1555 Hind’s Variable Nebula. They call

of this cluster is that nearly half

move your field of view around detected the large amount

Italian amateur astronomer Giuseppe Donatiello discovered a

22 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024

THE NECKLACE NEBULA

DESI LEGACY IMAGING SURVEYS/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA

24 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024

43 Palomar Observatory Sky

W. Sargent and Charles

THE MEDUSA NEBULA

26 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024

IC 443 actual diameter approximately 70 to see what’s really going on because a

SKY THIS MONTH Visible with binoculars

THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S CHANGING LANDSCAPE AS IT APPEARS IN EARTH’S SKY.

The rocky planets congregate in 10. Their constantly changing

JANUARY 2024 around the planet inside the

The new year begins You’ll find Saturn glowing LIBR A

28 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2024

inside the border are the cardinal A MINOR

overhead and orient it so one of 1