My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 01.2019 | Page 69

4 h 20 m
4 h 00 m
3 h 40 m
3 h 00 m
3 h 20 m
2 h 40 m
2 h 20 m
2 h 00 m
+64°
+62°
1502
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s
Ca
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mb
Ke
UV(c)
Tr 3
CASSIOPEIA
U(c)
1501
+60°
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1027
3
4
5
6
7
8
CAMELOPARDALIS
Cr 33
Stock 2
Stock 23
+58°
957
+56°
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PERSEUS
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869
884
Double
Cluster
Tr 2
p CHARTS ARE USEFUL Many of the clusters in tonight’s tour are rich in stars brighter than magnitude 8.5, the limit for this chart. That makes them
impressive from urban and suburban skies even through very small telescopes.
Camelopardalis
From Stock 2’s center, sweep 7.8° east and 0.8° north to the
charming open cluster Stock 23 on the Cassiopeia-Camel-
opardalis border. At 22× I see a skewed four-star diamond.
Slightly higher magnifi cation reveals a fi fth star, making a
shape like the Head of Hydra. A dozen additional stars appear
at 81×, and Σ362, the central star on the western edge,
resolves into a delightful tight double.
A prominent 1.7°-long arc of four stars, magnitudes 4.8 to
5.8, lies 5° northeast of Stock 23. The 7th-magnitude carbon
star U Camelopardalis fl oats 0.6° south of the arc’s western
end. I fi nd it very deep red, much more so than WZ Cas.
A delightful line of 7th- to 9th-magnitude stars some
2.5° long intersects the eastern end of our bright arc. This
asterism is known as Kemble’s Cascade, after the noted
Canadian amateur astronomer Father Lucian Kemble. The
line ends at the lovely open cluster NGC 1502, which,
like Stock 23, consists of a tight group of bright stars with
a wide double at its center. But NGC 1502’s members are
more densely packed than Stock 23’s, and the central double
is wider and brighter, with more evenly matched compo-
nents. NGC 1502 is both young (11 million years) and fairly
nearby (3,300 light-years).
Yet another carbon star, UV Camelopardalis, lies 0.6°
south-southwest of NGC 1502’s center. It’s worth a look
while you’re in the neighborhood, though it’s not nearly as
deep red as U Cam. The contrast between these two stars, just
3° apart, shows how varied carbon stars can be.
We’ll fi nish 1.4° south of NGC 1502 with the planetary
nebula NGC 1501. It’s a little challenging with my 130-mm
scope from Robbins Farm, but I can detect it with averted
vision at 81×, and once detected, I can hold it with direct
vision. It appears as a faint but substantial circular patch of
light. A narrowband nebula fi lter improves NGC 1501’s vis-
ibility considerably.
NGC 1501 is not as spectacular as the stars and star clus-
ters that we’ve visited, but it’s pleasant to end our tour with
something completely different: the gaseous envelope thrown
off by a star before fading to a white dwarf. Planetary nebulae
remind us that for all their seeming permanence, stars are
born, live, and die just as we do — though on much larger
scales of space and time.
¢ Contributing Editor TONY FLANDERS was a Sky & Telescope
editor from 2003 to 2014. His i rst article described observing
all the Messier objects from a local city park.
sk yandtele scope.com • JA N UA RY 2 019
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