Astronomy Observation Log: Perseus and neighbors
January 14th, 2008 | by Digvijay Lamba |Instrument: Garret Optical 10×50 PCF-WP Binoculars
Location: Sunnyvale, CA. In the city. Clear night but lots of light pollution.
Visibility: Naked Eye could see 2m stars. Almaak in Andromeda was not visible.
Target: Perseus Constellation and nearby areas.
Time: 10.50 to 11.50 PM
Constellations visited: Orion, Taurus, Perseus, Triangulum, Andromeda, Cassiopeia
What I saw from 10X50 Binoculars: M42, Hyades, Pleiades, Alpha Perseus Association, and M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) were clearly visible. NGC 752 cluster, M33, M34, and NGC 869/884 Double cluster were faint but clearly present. I could not find M103 and NGC 457 cluster which were near my visibility limit.
Detailed Log:
I started as usual with Orion constellation. I could clearly see the nebulosity in M42 with 2 stars visible inside the nebula. 45 and 42 Orionis above the Nebula and Tau Orionis below the nebula and the other stars in the Orion’s sword were clearly visible. This area is the most beautiful view in the night sky.
From here I followed Orion’s belt to hit Aldebaran in Tauras. The Hyades are yet another beauty in the night sky. The entire V formed by the Hyades was clearly visible and I counted nearly 15 stars in the V. I also followed up to Beta and Zeta Tauri that form the tips of the Tauras. Mars was bright and just above the line joining the two stars. I also took a quick look at the Pleiades and the 7 sisters were bright with a faint glow behind them.
I then followed the line joining Aldebaran and Ain at the top of Hyades in a long distance scan to hit the end of the Perseus constellation. You have to ignore a small group of stars before you hit what looks like a Triangle made of three stars that form the end of Perseus. 6 Stars were clearly visible in this area. The faintest one was 1163 Persei which glows at 6.57m telling me that stars up to 6.5m were easily visible. I followed through the Perseus arm till I hit Mirphak. Due to the orientation of Perseus I had some trouble following the arms, the orientation seemed to be counter-intuitive. Once I hit the Alpha Perseus association near Mirphak (Alpha Persei) and looked at it I knew I would, from now on, find it very easily. It is a beautiful dense astigmatism.
To find the other Perseus Arm I used a line between Delta and Tau Persei and perpendicularly intersected it from Mirphak. If you ignore Kappa Persei which lies a bit to the right of this line you will hit Beta Persei Algol which was just visible to the naked eye. I spent time looking around this area and recognizing each of the stars.
From here I first navigated to the Triangulum constellation. Be very careful of the distances involved here as several stars look like they may be fit the bill. Eventually found a straight line through Gorgonea Tertia the last star in this arm of Perseus, through two of the brightest stars I could see 20 Persei and 14 Trianguli to reach the three star corner of Triangulum. From here finding Alpha and Beta Trianguli was easy. I tried to join Gamma and Eta Trianguli to hit M33 – The Triangulum Galaxy. I reached the expected spot and because the area is very empty, I thought I saw a faint M33. Sort of a blurry star very faint.
Next I used the line joining Gamma and Eta Trianguli, drew a perpendicular through Beta Trianguli to hit Almaak, the corner star of Andromeda Constellation. On the way I tried to see NGC 752. There was a group of 5-7 stars in the area where I would expect this cluster. I need to go back and see if those stars were in fact part of the cluster. One of the stars in the location was a faint group which may be what I was looking for.
I then used the line joining Algol in Perseus with Almaak in Andromeda to find M34 open cluster. It was very very faint and it took me several minutes to finally place it. Finally, I did see it and I am sure I am going to go back to it when I have better conditions.
I then went back to Andromeda, and followed Almaak to Mirphak. 55 Andromeda was easily recognizable on this line near Almaak and I joined the two and followed the line through 47 Andromeda to a very bright Mirach. There was no mistaking it. A perpendicular line from Mirach easily found Mu and Nu Andromedae which are on the perpendicular arm. The prize of the night was here. M31 – Andromeda Galaxy was faint but clearly visible near Nu and 32 Andromedae. It was much larger than I expected and faint. I would definitely come back for look when I am farther from the city.
I then returned to Mirphak (Alpha Persei) in Perseus which was easily found. I followed the lonely arm of Perseus to Miram. I wanted to find the double cluster NGC 869 and 884. Near Miram 918 Persei is a bright and easily visible star. 825 Persei was also clearly visible. A line joining the two when extended hit on the double cluster. It took me several minutes to really see the double cluster. They were very very faint but both were clearly present. I have heard the double cluster is a fascinating view but they were not bright enough for me.
Joining Miram to the double cluster hit Ruchbach in Cassiopeia. The rest of Cassiopeia is easy to find. The two stars near Cih are bright and Achird and Shedir were also clearly visible. I tried very hard to see the open cluster M103 and NGC 457 near Ruchbach but I couldn’t see either. M103 is 7.4m and was clearly out of my range but I did hope to hit on NGC 457, the owl cluster, at 6.4m. But while I could easily find Phi Cassiopeiae, NGC 457 which should be right under it was not visible at all.
Tags: Andromeda, Astronomy, Cassiopeia, Observation Log, Orion, Perseus, Taurus, Triangulum
