Archives for February 2017

A Little Cluster in the Big Dog

February 16, 2017 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Deep Sky

NGC 2362, the Tau Canis Majoris cluster. Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, University of Arizona.

The constellation Canis Majoris, the ‘Big Dog’, is home to many fine open clusters of blue-white stars along the stubby Orion Arm of the Milky Way. There are some real gems here, including the modest but delightful open star cluster NGC 2362, a group that hosts some of the youngest-known stars. Centered on the bright star τ (tau) Canis Majoris, this cluster, in a telescope, looks like a large diamond set among many smaller blue-white gems [Read more…] about A Little Cluster in the Big Dog

Share This:

NGC 2477 – The Electric Guitar Cluster

February 10, 2017 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Deep Sky

NGC 2477 (also known as Caldwell 71) is an open cluster in the constellation Puppis. It contains about 300 stars, and was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751. The cluster's age has been estimated at about 700 million years. NGC 2477 is a stunning cluster, almost as extensive in the sky as the full moon. It has been called "one of the top open clusters in the sky", like a highly-resolved globular cluster without the dense center characteristic of globular clusters. Credit: J. Perez/ESO. — NGC 2477 (left) and NGC 2451 (right) are one of the most beautiful pairs of star clusters in the sky Credit: J. Perez/ESO.

We turn our gaze to the southern reaches of the constellation Puppis, south and east of the bright star Sirius and Canis Major, to examine two stunning star groups in a rich field of the Milky Way.

The first stop is the star cluster NGC 2477. Discovered by Nicolas de Lacaille (the ‘father of southern astronomy’) in 1752, this is a glorious star cluster, bright enough to be visible without optics from southern latitudes. It’s a fantastic binocular object, but it’s best viewed at low-power with a small telescope where it fits in the same field of view as an adjacent star cluster, NGC 2451. At a distance of 3,700 light years, NGC 2477 is one of the richest and densest of open star clusters and looks a little like the loose globular cluster M71 in the constellation Sagitta. The cluster has an impressive 1,900 members and spans about 37 light years. It’s also an ancient cluster, about 1 billion years old, and likely has lost many members since its birth to gravitational perturbations from other stars and star clusters [Read more…] about NGC 2477 – The Electric Guitar Cluster

Share This:

The Sky This Month – February 2017

February 1, 2017 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Celestial Events

The full Moon is partially in the Earth's shadow during a penumbral lunar eclipse. Credit: Radoslaw Ziomber/Wikipedia Commons. — The full Moon is partially in the Earth’s shadow during a penumbral lunar eclipse. Credit: Radoslaw Ziomber/Wikipedia Commons.

2 February 2017. Look for the bright white star Spica in the constellation Virgo and the much brighter planet Jupiter in the southeastern sky well before sunrise. The pair lie within about two finger widths of each other for most of the month.

2-3 Feb. The dwarf planet Ceres lies about 1º south of the waxing crescent Moon. Some observers across southern Europe, North Africa, Central America, and northern South America will see the little world pass behind the Moon at roughly 02:00 UT on Feb. 3. Ceres shines at about 9th magnitude, easy to see in binoculars or a telescope, although the glare of the Moon makes it a little harder to spot. Ceres is the largest of the dwarf planets in the asteroid belt. It’s a nearly round world with a diameter of 950km. That makes it the 33rd largest object in the solar system [Read more…] about The Sky This Month – February 2017

Share This: