The Cat’s Eye Nebula (also known as NGC 6543) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Draco. Our star was recently eclipsed by the moon, this nebula was an exploded star (about 1000 years ago). The Cat’s Eye Nebula cannot be seen by naked eye and lies about three thousand light-years from Earth. In my telescope it is small and dim.
NGC 6543 is in the center of the frame.
Commonly known as NGC 2420, the Twinkling Comet Cluster is an open cluster near the constellation Gemini. NGC 2420 is not a Messier object and doesn’t have a Messier number. At magnitude 8.3, it cannot be seen by the naked eye, but maybe it was seen via averted vision and thought to be a twinkling comet.
The cluster is in the center of the frame. 
Continue reading
Also known as NGC 2419, it is a globular cluster near the constellation of Lynxs. At magnitude 9 it is not visible to the naked eye.
I am taking pictures of less flamboyant and less popular objects because they’re interesting. It is called Tramp because it was once considered not part of the Milky Way and an intergalactic wanderer. It is intrinsically brighter than other globular clusters but further away. The Milky Way is considered 100,000 light years across. NGC 2419 is dim because it’s 300,000 light years away from Earth. NGC 2419 takes a billion years to rotate around the Milky Way whereas the Earth and Sun take 225,000 years.
It is the object to the left of the bright stars in the center of the frame.
AKA NGC 1664, it is an open cluster near the constellation of Auriga. NGC 1664 is a dim one. It is in the center of the photo frame. At magnitude 7.6 it cannot be seen by naked eye.
Betelgeuse, of the constellation Orion, is a red super giant star and one of the largest visible to the naked eye. It is huge. If it were at the center of our Solar System, its surface would lie beyond the asteroid belt and it would engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Calculations of Betelgeuse’s mass/weight range from slightly under ten to a little over twenty times that of the Sun. Betelgeuse is expected to end with a supernova explosion, most likely within 100,000 years. When Betelgeuse explodes, it will shine as bright as the half-Moon for more than three months. Life on Earth will be unharmed.
AKA NGC 1981, is an open cluster which is located in the constellation Orion. It is just above (above as in north of) the Running Man Nebula. A busy part of the sky. At magnitude 4.2 it is visible to the naked eye.
It looks like Sagittarius to me, but that is not as alliterative.
Continue reading
AKA NGC 2169, is an open cluster in the Orion constellation. It is nicknamed “The ’37’ Cluster” due to its resemblance to the numerals “37.” At magnitude 5.9, it can be seen by naked eye in dark skies.
The Broken Heart Cluster, or NGC 2281, is an open cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Auriga. It is about 1,700 light years from the Sun and is around 600 million years old. At magnitude 5.4, it can be seen by naked eye under a very dark sky.
Broken Heart Cluster
North (toward Polaris) is up in the photo. The picture was taken with a fully modified Canon Rebel camera (this is my one shot color camera) on a TEC 140 telescope in the Alpenglow-Torrey House Observatory in the dark sky community of Torrey, Utah (Bortle 2-3).
The best 10 of 14 20 second sub-frames were used and stacked in Deep Sky Stacker = three minute 20 second photo. Unguided, unbinned, no darks or flats. Processed in Photoshop (CS5).
Location in the night sky of the photo:
The Fly and Spider nebulae are in the northern constellation Auriga. At about magnitude 10 they cannot be seen by naked eye.
The Spider and Fly Nebulae
IC 348 is a star-forming region in the constellation Perseus. At magnitude 7.3 it is not visible to the naked eye.
Per Cloud in Perseus
