My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 01.2019 | Page 57

4 h 40 m
3 h 40 m
j
100 stars spread across
2°. Although about
nine times as old as
the Double Cluster,
M45’s brightest stars
are also icy blue-white
diamonds, arrayed in
a miniature dipper
shape. A few colored
stars stand out from
the crowd. Inside the
dipper’s bowl, the
northwestern com-
ponent of the double
star South 437 glows
orange. The dogleg of
stars south of Alcyone
wears a few tinted
stars. The one at the
bend is pale yellow and
the two southernmost
shine gold. An orange,
6th-magnitude star sits
well north of the clus-
ter’s main mass. The
lovely Merope Nebula
is clearly airbrushed on
the sky, enfolding and
+35°
PERSEUS
k
c
1514
+30°
3
4
5
6
7
+25°
M45
p
g 1
TAURUS
+20°
¡
b 3
_
2 h 24 m
e
b 1
a
2 h 22 m
2 h 20 m
2 h 18 m
7
PERSEUS
BU
V0424
869
V0504
V0503
884
V0519
V0439
V0403
V0507
V0359
RS
+57°
AD
Objects of the Sky). This long-forgotten
work was fi nally dragged back into
the light of day by G. Foderà Serio and
colleagues (Journal for the History of
Astronomy, 1985). The authors consid-
ered the identifi cation of M34 with the
object in Hodierna’s text tentative, but
Fredi de Maria of ORSAPA claims doubt
can be cast aside when taking into
account an error Hodierna made at one
place in his text.
Northward in Camelopardalis, the
spiral galaxy IC 342 is an intriguing
target. Even though it’s relatively nearby
(around 11 million light-years) and
its luminosity rivals our own galaxy,
IC 342 exhibits low surface brightness
because its face-on orientation smears
its light over a large area of the sky, and
because we view this attenuated light
through the dusty plane of our own
galaxy. Nonetheless, its apparent size
makes it a viable target for small tele-
scopes, since large dim objects are easier
to perceive than small ones. A 30′-tall,
M-shaped group of stars north of IC 342
makes the galaxy surprisingly easy to
spot through the 130-mm refractor at
23×. A 9.9-magnitude star hovers near
its northern edge and some fainter stars
are superimposed. A magnifi cation of
48× gives a better view, showing a small
core with a brighter center ensconced in
a 4′ wedge of four stars. The rest of the
galaxy is a diffuse glow about 14′ across,
accompanied by several stars huddled
close to its edge. In the 10-inch scope
at 88×, the galaxy’s brightness is softly
uneven in a pattern that suggests spiral
arms unwinding clockwise, as shown in
my sketch on page 56.
IC 342 is the dominant member of a
small galaxy group that bears its name.
It and the closely associated Maffei
group form the IC 342/Maffei complex,
one of the closest galaxy groups to our
own. According to NGC/IC researcher
Wolfgang Steinicke, Edward Emerson
Barnard visually discovered this galaxy
with Lick Observatory’s 12-inch Clark
refractor in 1890 and recorded it in the
observatory’s logbook.
Southward in Taurus, the Pleiades
(Messier 45) are simply magnifi cent
in the 130-mm scope at 23×, boasting
4 h 00 m
4 h 20 m
6
Double Cluster
7
8
9
10
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