In the end my first target of the night was actually an obvious one, it was the comet named "C/2014 E2 (Jacques)" that people had been discussing recently on the astronomy forums. I had never actually looked at a comet yet through my telescope so I was a bit excited about it. To be honest it was actually a bit of a letdown as there was no tail present and it was lacking in colour, it basically just looked like a small smudge similar to how distant galaxies can appear in my scope. I have seen pictures so I do know that it is a green colour but that doesn't come up when looking at it visually which was a shame. It was still nice to see but it wasn't as wonderful as I was hoping for.
So after this I decided to spent a little time exploring the area of the sky that the comet was sitting in, namely Cassiopeia and the various sights I ended up looking at are highlighted in the image below.
Caldwell 14 / The Double Cluster
RA: 02 20 Dec: +57 08
Type: Open Star Clusters
Magnitude: 3.7 and 3.8
The Double Cluster is the common name for the two naked-eye open clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884. NGC 869 is about 7,500 Light Years away and is comprised of about 350 stars in a region 75 light years wide. NGC 884 is very similar in both size and distance with it also being about 7,500 Light Years away and comprised of about 300 stars in a region 70 light years wide. Although I have noted a few comments around the internet and in books that imply some measurements show there may actually be almost 1,000 light years of difference in the two cluster's distance from Earth.
I have seen the double cluster before but this is the first time in my own telescope and it was lovely sight. My new 32mm Eyepiece managed to fit both clusters in the FoV without any issues at all. One day I may need to try and put a sketch together but it would probably take me hours to do and I am not sure my back can take being hunched over the eyepiece that long.
Messier 103
RA: 01 33 Dec: +60 42
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.4
M103 is an Open Cluster about 8,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 50 stars in a region 15 light years wide and to be honest it took me quite a while to find. The problem was I was looking for something that really appeared like a cluster with at least 10 stars and the odd dim background light.
When I found it, what I saw with 4 small stars with a center one showing a clear orange colour which was actually the reason I realised I had actually found it plus checking Stellarium on the laptop to confirm the star pattern.
It isn't the most exciting of clusters at all and as with all the clusters I checked this night I didn't notice any dim background light like I supposedly should do. I suspect this may be related to the fact it isn't the darkest site I am using.
Caldwell 10
RA: 01 46 Dec: +61 15
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.1
Caldwell 10 or NGC 663 as it is also known is an Open Cluster about 5,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 100 stars in a region 35 light years wide. It is quite a nice little open cluster which is much more notable that the nearby Messier 103 or the other clusters around it. Supposedly I should have been able to see a hazy light background due to the other stars in the cluster but I have to admit that I didn't notice this.
NGC 659
RA: 01 44 Dec: +60 40
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 7.9
NGC 659 is an Open Cluster about 7,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 30 stars in a region 10 light years wide. It is a very uninspiring cluster with about three stars actually visible and none of them showing any sort interesting colours. From a darker site I may have been able to see some background light from other stars in the cluster but even then I doubt it would have been that exciting.
One thing I was able to do was get it into the same FoV as Caldwell 10 which did at least make the view a bit more impressive.
Caldwell 13 / The Owl Cluster
RA: 01 20 Dec: +58 17
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 6.4
NGC 457 is an Open Cluster about 9,000 Light Years away and is comprised of about 200 stars in a region 30 light years wide. This is my favourite cluster of the night as it is cluster with a very clear and beautiful shape, I could easily find myself staring at it for hours I suspect in an attempt to explore every star. It does have various names but I prefer the Owl Cluster as that it what it was first introduced to me as and I can see that shape clearly. I have to be honest and say I still don't see the shape of ET in it which I believe is a popular name of the cluster in the US.
On thing I noted is that the star Phi Cassiopeiae is fairly obvious in the eyepiece as it is by far the brightest star there. Interesting enough though, it has never actually been confirmed if it is actually part of the clsuter or if it just happens to lie along the same line of sight. If it really is part of the cluster then this would probably make Phi Cassiopeiae the brightest star in the galaxy.
Eta Cassiopeiae / Achird / STF 60 (HIP 3821 / SAO 21732)
RA: 00 49 05.1 Dec: +57 38 59.4
Magnitudes: 3.52, 7.36
Separation: 13.2"
Position Angle: 323°
Eta Cassiopeiae is a lovely double star comprised of G0 V primary star and a smaller K7 V secondary star. I could actually see the colours of the stars within the eyepiece with the primary appearing white whilst the secondary had a pale orange colour. The secondary actually has a ghostly appearance but was still clearly visible against the glare from the brighter primary component. It is actually quite a mesmerising sight and I could probably stare at this double for quite a long time if I let myself. I was actually a bit saddened that I hadn’t brought my sketching materials out with me as I would have loved to try and capture what I was seeing.
An interesting piece of information I found out about this star is that some of the double star catalogues list further dimmer components. However, it appears that these are actually more distant stars and are not related to the Eta Cassiopeiae system at all. I may at some point try and see all of these optical companions but that is something I will need to do at a darker site as they do have quite low magnitudes.
Iota Cassiopeiae / STF 262 (HIP 11569 / SAO 12298)
RA: 02 29 04.0 Dec: +67 24 09
Magnitudes: 4.63, 6.92, 9.05, 8.48
Separation: 2.8", 7.2", 212"
Position Angle: 42°, 230°, 116°
This was a fun little multiple star to look at due to the high quantity of components that comprise the system. I have to admit however that I didn’t realise it had 4 components that I should have been able to see and so I concentrated on trying to see only 3. I blame the various webpages around which only seem to concentrate on 3 components and myself for not realising I wasn’t even concentrating on the 3 that most people notice. I basically only noticed the A, C & D Components and completely missed the B Component which was the closest one to the main star. So my initial happiness at having managed to see three components in both my 32mm and 8mm Eyepiece has since been dulled now that I know I missed something although I doubt I would have picked it up in my 32mm anyway. Next time I look at this star I am determined I will get a glance at all 4 components!
These doubles were my last targets in Cassiopeia for the night as I knew it was getting late and I wanted to grab a quick look at some other targets in the night sky. The first of these was everyone’s old friend Messier 31 otherwise known as the Andromeda Galaxy. The view I got of this galaxy in my new 32mm Eyepiece was superb and it really was the best view I have had. The core was clearly visible alongside some dimmer outer regions, this was the first time I have managed to see real structure in a galaxy beyond it just being a fuzzy patch of light. I got an additional bonus in that I also managed to pick up the small fuzzy shape of Messier 32, which is one of Andromeda’s satellite galaxies. It was completely unexpected but I had a huge grin on my face when I saw it sitting there quite clearly below Andromeda.
After getting this unexpected first sight of Messier 32 I decided I wanted to explore some more objects that I hadn’t seen before and settled on the two targets highlighted in the following image:
Messier 57 / Ring Nebula
RA: 18 53 35 Dec: +33 01 45
Type: Planetary Nebula
Magnitude: 8.8
The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula which sits within the constellation Lyra. Such objects are formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf.
I was actually a little bit disappointed with my viewing of this nebula as I had been hoping to see something that looking like a grey smoke ring but that didn’t happen. What I did see was a very clear small and circular shape when using my 32mm eyepiece but I couldn’t make out any dimmer central region. This is probably due to a mix of light pollution and low magnification but when I tried to increase the magnification via the 8mm eyepiece the nebula became very dim and hard to resolve so I had to revert back to the 32mm. Next time I think I may attempt to use my 25mm Eyepiece which I didn’t think to try this time. In addition, I am going to consider getting a UHC filter or something similar to help when viewing nebulas.
Beta Cygni / Albireo / STFA 43 (HIP 95947 / SAO 87301)
RA: 19 30 43.3 Dec: +27 57 34.6
Magnitudes: 3.19, 4.68
Separation: 34.7"
Position Angle: 55°
My final target of the night was this beautiful double star which form part of the Cygnus constellation. It is comprised of a lovely yellow primary and a blue secondary which I saw very clearly from the moment I had it in the eyepiece. It really is very striking and reminded me of the similarly coloured and equally impressive double star of Almach. I found myself switching between multiple eyepieces whilst studying this star but I think I preferred the 32mm which still easily split the star but also showed the surrounding stars. These less colourful stars helped to really showcase the wonderful colours that are present in Albireo.
Overall this was a wonderful night; I saw so many new things, many of which were quite impressive. My new equipment all performed well and I found using the laptop outside helped me select target quicker and it helped me verify where I was when the slewing didn’t hit the target exactly. It was so good to be out again and I am already looking forward to getting back out there soon.
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