Show #37: The Horsehead Nebula and Messier Marathons

Carpe Noctem - Seize the Night!

Image credit:copyright 2006 by Dr. Walter Koprolin (astro.nightsky.at)

ALDEBARAN AT DUSK

Thou art the star for which all evening waits--
O star of peace,come tenderly and soon,
Nor heed the drowsy and enchanted moon,
Who dreams in silver at the eastern gates
Ere yet she brim with light the blue estates
Abandoned by the eagles of the noon.
But shine thou swiftly on the darkling dune
And woodlands where the twilight hesitates.

Above that wide and ruby lake to-West,
Wherein the sunset waits reluctantly,
Stir silently the purple wings of Night.
She stands afar, upholding to her breast,
As mighty murmurs reach her from the sea,
Thy lone and everlasting rose of light.

George Sterling, 1911

Horsehead Nebula -B33

Image credit:sadly I can't remember who's drawing this is! If it is yours please email me so I can give you due credit. The annotations are mine.

Here is the long windbag version of how I find B33!

If you have a smaller scope (8") wait until the belt of Orion is as high as it gets or in the darkest part of the sky for your area. Seeing conditions have more to do with success than just about anything else (IMHO). Half of the time I am parked right on it and can't see it at all which can be both frustrating and tantalizing at the same time...so close and yet....

Start off on the eastern most star in Orion's belt, Alnitak or zeta Ori, move the scope east and look for the Flame Nebula, NGC 2024 Keep moving east and slide Alnitak out of the field of view, now if you can see the Flame nebula chance are that you will be able to see the Horsehead nebula. If you can't see the Flame then see if you can find a bigger scope or darker skies. If you don't see it at first step away close your eyes and let them re-dark adapt after looking at bright Alnitak. (These days I don't start at Alnitak but just to the west of her...)

Starting at Alnitak inch south to two relatively bright stars, the first one fainter, the second one brighter, 7th mag labeled "A" on the picture This is the higher-contrast, eastern edge of IC 434 the bright 'river' of nebulosity streaming south from Alnitak. East of the second star there is another star surrounded by not-so-faint nebulosity designated NGC 2023 start getting ready for looooooow contrast.

Drawing an imaginary line from NGC 2023 to the 7th magnitude star, and extending it across IC 434, you will find another two relatively bright stars (the northern one brighter "B", the southern one fainter) not quite aligned with the eastern edge of IC 434. Exactly there, at the eastern edge of IC 434, B33 is located. Make an equilateral triangle with "A" and "B" and the imaginary 3rd point to the south and just inside the imaginary 3rd point is B33.

To see it, use averted vision and keep the eye steady by fixing one of the stars. If the conditions are excellent and you get a little experience in observing B33, you can even detect the Horsehead shape. Experiment with power and filters but don't give up! If you don't get it then try again another night...you are probably right on top of it!

My mistake each time is to look for something small and contrasty...you need to look for a larger, dark mass protruding (east to west) into IC 434 with optically very little contrast except with a large scope and darker skies (and maybe a little filtering). I can usually make out the flat top and the bulge of the head but not the snout...not on the 8".

Stellarium

We recently had our Student Program learn to write scripts in Stellarium (with a lot of help from one of our super-parents, Bob!) for their annual public night presentation on the "Constellations". If you haven't played with Stellarium scripts it is a lot of fun and somewhat addicting. You will end up spending a lot more time than you think!

Stellarium zip file

Messier_aff.sts -This is one that I wrote (I'm a beginner too!)for our "Get ready for the Messier Marathon" meeting. It goes through an alternate selection of the viewing order, at least the beginning is different. The beginning of the file runs while we talk about what you need for the marathon. Press "K" to advance from object to object (M40 is missing from Stellarium) at each title break it will spin to the next object by itself and then you can continue to advance as you wish. REMEMBER! This was programmed in a hurry and I haven't had a chance to work with it since. But I will get it cleaned up soon.

You will want to comment out the landscape or if you want to see what it is like to view from our observing hill at the college then go to the TAS website and download our landscape files. Follow the directions included in the file to add the TAS Ft. Steilacoom landscape to your Stellarium.

Messier Marathon

The ultimate Messier Marathon site...SEDS!
As far as the order you use there are several lists on the above site but I like the logic behind Tom Polakis' order.

Southern Hemisphere

-September would be a good time for a marathon of "Bennett List" and "Best Sky Objects from SAAO latitude"

Sun

sunspots

Listener Feedback

Cloudy Nights Telescope Review

Quick News

New Horizons - This dramatic image of Io was taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons at 11:04 Universal Time on February 28, 2007, just about 5 hours after the spacecraft's closest approach to Jupiter. The distance to Io was 2.5 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) and the image is centered at 85 degrees west longitude. At this distance, one LORRI pixel subtends 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) on Io.

Time again for the Globe at Night program!

Planets

Evening Planets

• Venus - Mag -3.9 moving from Pisces to Aries absolutely wonderful. The only thing shining through the cloud cover here in the Pacific NW.
• Saturn - Mag 0.0 on the western edge of Leo just now north-west of Regulus between the curve of the question mark and Regulus. Nice and high in the early evening!

Morning Planets

• Jupiter - Mag -2.1 in southern Ophiuchus in the south before dawn to the southwest is Antares.
• Mars - Mag 1.2 in Capricorn just above the Sun's glare in the southeast
• Mercury - Mag 0.5 in Aquarius very low at dawn between Mars and the horizon

Lost in the Sun's glare

• Neptune and Uranus

Constellations

Monoceros (moh-NOSS-er-us) - the Unicorn
Introduced by: very old, reported found on Persian spheres
Best known stars: Plaskett's Star-HR 2422 Monocerotis one of the most massive binaries known, with two hugely massive blue-white class O (as best we can tell, O7.5 and O6) supergiants tightly orbiting each other with a period of only 14.40 days.
Beta Mon-triple star system a great triple star system, especially for smaller telescopes. William Herschel, discovered it in 1781
Deep sky objects: The Rosette Nebula, 2237, 2238, 2239, and 2246. Inside the clear center of the rose is open cluster 2244. On the southeast corner of the nebula is 2264 another bright open cluster.
Also the fan/comet-shaped Hubble's variable nebula NGC 2261, which is associated with the very young star R Monocerotis at its southern tip. A friend just brought an image in to our last meeting of Hubble's variable and it was quite impressive!
M50 This is a cluster of about a hundred bright stars, rather tightly grouped, ideal for small telescopes. It can even be seen by the naked eye on a good night. There is a red star near its center.
NGC 2506 is a beautiful , bright mag 7.6, densely packed open cluster...almost a wanna-be globular cluster!
Double stars: Epsilon Mon is a fixed binary
Variable stars: S Monocerotis located at the center of NGC 2264

Viewing

Naked eye and binoculars M44 - Praesepe (the manger) or the Beehive Cluster in Cancer
M31, M32, M110 in Andromeda
NGC 2232 small open cluster in Monoceros, mag 4.2 the stars make a 'wedge' shape

Telescope -

Northern Hemisphere chart Taki's chart Maps 78 and 79
Southern Hemisphere chart Taki's chart Map 55, Map 104, Map 108
M35 in Gemini near Castor's foot but what is more interesting is the neighbor... NGC 2158, NGC 2174 and 2175
IC 418 planetary nebula in Lepus nicknamed the Raspberry Nebula at 9.6 mag in a smaller scope it doesn't appear to have the red color large scope can claim, slightly bluish (bottom of map 104).

Viewing challenges:

NGC 404 just off of beta Andromeda 10.2 mag galaxy, interesting and tough with beta so bright.
NGC 613 10.1mag in Sculptor (map 108) you need a lot of mirror for this one. Galaxy with a very long 'core'.
NGC 2185 in Monoceros a pair of nebula the eastern one looks like a tulip.

Comets

Comets for the Month.

Check out the Sky Hound site.

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin"
-- Shakespeare

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Music

Celtic Stone's "Drowsy Maggie" (should we re-name it drowsy Alice after this weekend!)
Ariaphonic's Sposa son disprezzata

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