Deep Sky Observing

Just under the handle of the Big Dipper lies the dim constellation Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs, one of ten star groups devised by the 17^th century astronomer Johannes Hevelius. Serving as the mayor of Danzig by day, Hevelius, understandably, preferred astronomy to politics and worked diligently to map the Moon, observe sunspots, and modernize maps of the northern night sky. In devising this constellation, he took into account past astronomical references to the two stars south of the Dipper’s handle as “hunting dogs” held on a leash by the huntsman represented by the constellation Bootes as they snapped at the hindquarters of the great bear of Ursa Major.

The brighter of the two stars in this dim constellation is 3^rd-magnitude Alpha Canes Venaticorum, more informally called Cor Caroli, the ‘Heart of Charles’. The star was named after Charles I, the unfortunate monarch caught in the buzz saw of the English Civil War and beheaded in 1649. The fainter is 4^th-magnitude Beta Canes Venaticorum, also known as Chara. As for the rest of the constellation, it isn’t much to look at. Like the adjacent Coma Berenices, few bright stars lie here because we’re looking in a direction out of the plane of the Milky Way and into intergalactic space. But there are plenty of galaxies here, and a couple of other deep-sky objects of note for backyard stargazers. Let’s take a short tour of a handful of highlights in this little constellation. [Read more…] about A Deep-Sky Tour of the ‘Hunting Dogs’

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Nearly overhead in the mid-evening hours of northern spring (and low over the northern horizon in the southern hemisphere), the constellation Cancer is the faintest of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Many casual stargazers pass it by when looking from bright Gemini to the striking group Leo to the east. In city skies, the constellation is hard to see at all. Despite its inconspicuousness, there are some excellent sights in Cancer within reach of a telescope, including the superb star cluster M44, the Beehive Cluster, and the intriguing M67, one of the oldest known open star clusters. [Read more…] about The Star Clusters of Cancer

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If you’re looking for something good to see in the northern-hemisphere winter sky, my recent article at Sky & Telescope magazine will give you plenty of ideas. From the star clusters of Perseus down to the rich fields of Canis Major and Puppis, this tour includes a couple of dozen deep-sky sights and collections of sights that look better in a small telescope than in a big one.

You can access a PDF of the article at this link.

And, in the video below, I walk through the article with Dr. Frank Timmes of the University of Arizona as part of the American Astronomical Society’s video series. Take some ideas from this article, dress warmly, and head outside your your scope!

[Read more…] about Small Telescope Tour of the Winter Stars

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“Out on the lawn I lie in bed, Vega conspicuous overhead…” -W.H. Auden

I see plenty of stars in my line of work, and I’ve yet to see one I don’t like. But if had to choose a favorite, it would be the dazzling star Vega, the jewel of the tiny constellation Lyra, the Lyre. Intensely bright and blue-white in color, Vega conjurs memories of pleasant summer evenings spent stargazing and offers astronomers a remote stellar laboratory to help understand how stars evolve [Read more…] about Contemplating the “Harp Star”

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