[AZ-Observing] North Polar Constellations From Flatiron
- From: Tom Polakis <polakis@xxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, amastro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 19:48:38 -0700
I joined a sizeable group at the Flatiron site west of Phoenix Saturday
night. As is usual for this time of year, the temperature was nearly
perfect. Conditions were very good, but the moon put an end to the session
at midnight. I used my 10-inch scope, and stayed mainly in Camelopardalis,
straying to Ursa Minor for a couple objects. Camelopardalis resembles a
giraffe so much, it's not funny.
Polarissma (NGC 3172) is noteworthy only as the closest NGC object to the
North Celestial Pole. I found it to be at the limit of the 10-inch, barely
visible as a faint circular smudge 1' across with a very slightly brighter
core.
Kemble's Cascade is a chain of 15 stars of magnitude 7 and 8 that stretches
across nearly 3 degrees, ending at the small open cluster NGC 1502. At the
center of the chain is a 5th-magnitude star. This one is great in the
11x80mm finder on my 20-inch, but I found the 9x60mm to be a bit too small
to present the asterism in all its glory. It was named by Walter Scott
Houston after the late Lucian Kemble, who alerted him to it, wondering if
it's a true association. It's not. If your planetarium software allows
you to do proper motion simulations, you'll see the stars heading every
which way in the next 100,000 years.
Not far away is the planetary nebula NGC 1501. It is a moderately bright,
circular disc that is about 1' across. At 200x, the disc is perfectly
circular, showing a slightly darker center suggesting a thick ring. The
14th-magnitude central star comes and goes with the seeing.
More than eight hours of Right Ascension away, but still in the same
constellation, is the contrasting planetary nebula IC 3568. This one is
very bright, but small. I saw a bright core about 5" across with no
central star and a slightly fainter surrounding shell that brought the
diameter to 15". A 13th-magnitude star is only 15" away.
Camelopardalis is rich with clusters. Collinder 464 is a bit of
disappointment. With unaided vision, there is a fuzzy clump that is the
result of four closely spaced 6th- and 7th-magnitude stars. The telescope
shows a rich field, but it's difficult to define a cluster. Indeed the
SIMBAD database lists no cluster at its position.
I was pleasantly surprised by Stock 23, which showed 20 stars scattered
across a 20' field. Four of these stars are magnitude 7, and this includes
a beautiful equal-magnitude double with a small chain of four stars
pointing right at it.
Finally, near the bright spiral galaxy NGC 2403 is the dwarf irregular
galaxy NGC 2366. It's not much more than a 4'x2' haze, but it features an
impressive HII region that is catalogued as NGC 2363. This region turns on
with a nebula filter. I found the UHC filter to be more effective in
revealing the bright nebula.
All in all, a good time was had by me.
Tom
---
Tom Polakis
Tempe, AZ
Arizona Sky Pages
http://www.psiaz.com/polakis/
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