The Caldwell Objects

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6997, as we do on page 85). The Observing
Handbook and Catalogue of Deep-Sky Objects
misidentifies NGC 6997 as NGC 6996, as does the
second edition of Sky Catalogue 2000.0. Even the
pros have gotten caught up in the confusion; a
1990 Astrophysics and Space Sciences paper titled
"Photometry of the open cluster NGC 6996 in the
North America Nebula" actually describes NGC
6997.
On the North America Nebula's "Pacific
Northwest" coastline, a weak explosion of a
dozen or so stars occupies a 10'-wide area at
about the position of Washington State. This is
the frequently overlooked 8th-magnitude cluster
Collinder 428.1 like to imagine its glow as the
illuminated dust thrown into the atmosphere by
the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The
cluster's stars are arranged in fairly neat parallel
lines trending northeast to southwest on the sky.
There are also some perpendicular strings of
stars to the east and south of the cluster's core. At
72x the pattern resembles a symbol in a Japanese
newspaper. It might be fun to grab the famous
"North America at Night" satellite image, which
shows the wasteful glow of countless cities
casting light into space, and try to match up a
star in the North America Nebula with your
hometown. Then, during summer star parties,
you can show "your city" to guests.
If you're up for a challenge, try to trace the
outline of the neighboring Pelican Nebula. If
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you can see the weak glow of "Florida" under
your skies, you should be able to capture the
Pelican. But it will take some time, because the
Pelican is a faint and fairly uniform glow with
numerous patches of dark nebulosity. The star
56 Cygni perches on the Pelican's back, while
57 Cygni sits at eye level on the bird's drooping
beak. Raymo likes to think of the Pelican as "lost
Atlantis risen from the sea."
Finally, while scanning the Milky Way surrounding
the North America Nebula, I encountered
a larger "North America" that I find easier
to make out because of its size. This "object"
shares many of NGC 7000's characteristics: eastern
and western coasts, a dark Gulf of Mexico,
and a Florida Peninsula. My "new" North
America spans 5° on the sky. To see it, start at
Deneb, which marks the position of Maine. The
entire western edge of NGC 7000 serves as the
southern half of the new continent's eastern
(terrestrial) seaboard, with the southernmost
portion of NGC 7000 representing Florida rather
than Central America. The Gulf of Mexico is a
large circular bay of darkness that loops around
Xi ( ξ Cygni, ) while the star 68 Cygni, 2° to the
east, marks the position of Mexico. The West
Coast runs 4° to the northwest, where the star 63
Cygni lies on the border of Washington State and
British Columbia. Now look about 4° farther east
to the bright open cluster M39. Its glowing stars
are placed just about where you would expect to
find the Hawaiian Islands.
Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects