The Caldwell Objects

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33 & 34 so slightly east of the star. The brighter, eastern segment (NGC 6992 and NGC 6995) lies 2.7° to the northeast of 52 Cygni. In its entirety the Cygnus Loop is enormous, measuring 3.5° x 2.7°. The two principal arcs mentioned here just fit inside the edge of the Genesis's low-power field of view, which spans nearly 3°. Under a dark sky NGC 6992 and NGC 6995 are easily visible in 7x35 binoculars, while NGC 6960 is more difficult but just within range. Together they look like fading X-rays of frac- 132 tured chicken bones. Some 20 years ago, I made several pointless attempts to see the Veil through the 9-inch refractor at Harvard College Observatory. (Lightpollution filters weren't available then.) Having failed with so mighty a telescope, I believed that seeing the Veil at the eyepiece was impossible — until the renowned nova discoverer Peter Collins finally showed it to me through 11x80 binoculars one year at Astro-Assembly, a gathering of amateur astronomers Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects
under the dark skies of Seagrave Observatory in Rhode Island. The experience opened my eyes to the corrosive power of light pollution, for what I could detect in binoculars under a dark sky I could not detect in a fairly large telescope under city skies. That same night, Richard Lynch, of the Skyscrapers Astronomy Club, showed me the Veil's feathery form through Seagrave's 9-inch refractor. I enjoyed seeing this stellar corpse from an observatory with the word "grave" in it. The experience has had an impact on me ever since. Here in Hawaii, for example, low-power views of the nebula still remind me of spirits fleeing an open grave. Seen through the Genesis at 23x, the brightest portions of the Veil (NGC 6992 and NGC 6995) are remarkably obvious, looking like a cosmic ripple. Even a fast sweep of the region brings them clearly into view. In fact, during a comet hunt in December 19961 chanced upon them, finding that they resembled a headless comet with a diabolically curved tail. This appearance made me wonder how Messier had missed such a splendor. But the answer seems obvious. Messier did not enjoy the wide fields of view provided by so many of today's telescopes. Through his narrow-field instruments the nebula, if detected at all, would have appeared like dim and stringy sections of the Milky Way and not anything like the condensed form of a comet. Remember, too, that the Veil resides on the eastern outskirts of the overwhelmingly complex Cygnus Milky Way. In his Celestial Handbook Robert Burnham Jr. argues that a widefield eyepiece is essential for detecting this difficult object, which he likens to "a miniature Milky Way in itself." Many works will state that small telescopes will not reveal much detail in the Veil's opposing segments. But this is not wholly true. What one sees depends in part on his or her location The Caldwell Objects 33 & 34 and experience. Through the Genesis under a dark sky, the Veil appears to me as intricately braided vapors encircling a hollow area of the Milky Way. The braided structure of the various filaments can be inferred from the numerous dark lanes that cross the glowing nebulosity. Especially apparent are the gaps between NGC 6992, NGC 6995, and IC 1340, the three segments that make up the Network Nebula. (IC 1340 was not included by Patrick Moore when he defined Caldwell 33, but clearly it is part of the Network Nebula.) I did view each independent section with medium and high power. The Network Nebula took 72x very well! I could not make out individual streamers, but I could infer their presence from the nebulosity's definite patchiness and its dark veins. Sky & Telescope editor Joshua Roth says he used to get "knockout views" of the Veil from California's Mount Pinos with a 41 / - 8 inch Astroscan and an ultra-high-contrast filter. Some of Mount Pinos's "old-timers," he adds, were surprised that this telescope could show the whole loop at 16x, and with some detail at that. He also finds the Veil pretty easy in 7x50 binoculars from a dark site. The Filamentary Nebula (NGC 6960) is best seen by placing 52 Cygni in the center of the field. Look for a beautiful stream of vapor or a lock of silver hair flowing by the star, like a comet's dim ion tail. A very faint extension can be followed to the south, but doing so with a small telescope takes time and patience. I should note that I visually "climbed the ladder" of the Filamentary Nebula's twisting filaments at the 1994 Texas Star Party, where I climbed a ladder and peered through the eyepiece of a 36-inch reflector built (and then owned) by Florida amateurs Tom and Jeannie Clark. The view of the Veil through that telescope was as good as any photograph (better, in fact, because I experienced it firsthand) and the nebula possessed a rosecolored hue. It's rare 133
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DEEP-SKY COMPANIONS The Caldwell Ob
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DEEP-SKY COMPANIONS The Caldwell Ob
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Contents Foreword by Patrick Moore
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to be more difficult than others, s
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years of thought and observation ar
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XII position, type, angular size, a
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sky and share its splendors. There
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CHAPTER 1 About This Book O N ONE S
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times vog can back up and cause a s
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when there is moisture in the air.
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Herschel's original observations, p
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we use today and to one another? I
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SIMBAD (Set of identifications, Mea
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Caldwell 26. The objects in the Cal
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tion near the edges of the charts).
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nights of observing. Unless otherwi
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CHAPTER 2 The Caldwell Objects 1 1
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Because of its location far from th
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as strongly energized as would be e
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suggested by the patchiness of NGC
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4 NGC 7023 Type: Reflection Nebula
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astronomers found direct evidence o
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and his contemporaries. Why then wa
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6 Cat's Eye Nebula NGC 6543 Type: P
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Eighth-magnitude NGC 6543 is locate
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7 NGC 2403 Type: Mixed Spiral Galax
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according to theory, the gas densit
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8 Ghost’s Goblet NGC 559 Type: Op
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One other thing adds to the cluster
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RA: 22 h 56.8 m Dec: +62° 37' Mag:
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nebula is a near impossibility, eve
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1 0 The Horseshoe Cluster NGC 663 T
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heart of the cluster, dividing it i
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appears to be the edge of a rapidly
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1 2 NGC 6946 Type: Mixed Spiral Gal
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to the west by a row of similarly b
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the south-southwest. NGC 457, howev
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photographs. The cluster's bright "
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play begins at 8:00 p.m., when my e
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ightness by summing the contributio
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jewels. Here are sapphires, rubies,
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15 outer shell falls upon the retin
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"knots" have also been noted by exp
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tight gathering of a half-dozen rou
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1 7 NGC 147 Type: Elliptical Galaxy
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the center. A faint outer halo is a
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1 9 Cocoon Nebula IC 5146 (nebula)
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Page 101 and 102: 2 0 North America Nebula NGC 7000 T
Page 103 and 104: egion's size and mass extreme when
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Page 107 and 108: 2 1 Box Galaxy NGC 4449 Type: Irreg
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Page 115 and 116: 1003, NGC 1023, and NGC 1058 (a nic
Page 117 and 118: Way) that pop in and out of view as
Page 119 and 120: RA: 03 h 19 m 48 s Dec: +41° 30.7'
Page 121 and 122: Through the 4-inch, NGC 1275 is les
Page 123 and 124: (300,000 light-years), Pal 4 (360,0
Page 125 and 126: 26 Silver Needle Galaxy NGC 4244 Ty
Page 127 and 128: 2 7 Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 Type:
Page 129 and 130: Observatory, England) still lists a
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Page 133 and 134: 29 NGC 5005 Type: Mixed Spiral Gala
Page 135 and 136: s h a edges. r p However, Christian
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Page 139 and 140: NGC 7331 is extended much farther t
Page 141 and 142: away" stars escaped the confines of
Page 143 and 144: sweep the telescope in a north-sout
Page 145 and 146: highly suspect by some. However, in
Page 147 and 148: 33 Network Nebula; Bridal Veil Nebu
Page 149: A quarter-second later, the star en
Page 153 and 154: 35 NGC 4889 Type: Elliptical Galaxy
Page 155 and 156: magnitude 12.2 some 18' to the east
Page 157 and 158: 36 NGC 4559 Type: Mixed Spiral Gala
Page 159 and 160: Comae Berenices, the obvious northe
Page 161 and 162: 3 7 NGC 6885 Type: Open Cluster Con
Page 163 and 164: pressed, stars of magnitude 6 to 11
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Page 173 and 174: not be found in planetary nebulae,
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Page 177 and 178: 4 0 NGC 3626 Type: Lenticular Galax
Page 179 and 180: 40 NGC 4546 in Virgo, NGC 4138 in C
Page 181 and 182: Northern Hemisphere, and people cel
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Page 185 and 186: this state of affairs.) The Hyades
Page 187 and 188: 4 2 NGC 7006 Type: Globular Cluster
Page 189 and 190: each square arcminute of its disk s
Page 191 and 192: 4 3 Electric Arc NGC 7814 Type: Spi
Page 193 and 194: hook as my "train route." Start at
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Page 197 and 198: 4 5 NGC 5248 Type: Mixed Spiral Gal
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1" in a mere four days. Clearly, La
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porarily) even the most practiced o
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4 7 NGC 6934 Type: Globular Cluster
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stragglers are stars that appear to
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4 8 NGC 2775 Type: Spiral Galaxy (S
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with a CCD camera — discovered a
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this wreathlike network of dust and
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fuzzy patch of light with the unaid
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known as NGC 2244; and NGC 2239 sho
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At a glance the two stars at the cl
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On four plates taken with the Bruce
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years. A total of 43 star-cluster c
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5 2 NGC 4697 Type: Elliptical Galax
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northeast of the sixth star in the
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53 The Spindle NGC 3115 Type: Lenti
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and the 100-inch telescopes atop Mo
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5 4 NGC 2506 Type: Open Cluster Con
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emerge, followed by a diffuse outer
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perfection than is actually the cas
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jets, like a stream of water from t
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5 6 Pac-Man Nebula NGC246 Type: Pla
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the triple-alpha process, wherein t
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5 7 Barnard's Galaxy NGC 6822 Type:
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to show how the galaxy's western re
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core and limber arms, which, he wro
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esembles Jupiter . . . '" Smyth's f
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years" and suggests amateurs monito
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6 0 Ringtail Galaxy; Rataail Galaxy
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war. X-ray images taken by the Rosa
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W. Sinnott's NGC 2000.0 has a visua
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62 Milkweed Seed Galaxy NGC247 Type
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through the narrow haze. But give t
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was more readily seen in binoculars
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Society. Accepting that distance, w
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any large telescope that can provid
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ought it to our attention in the Fe
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inch the cluster shows a pyramid of
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NGC 253 is the brightest member of
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magnitude stars, one just to the ea
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6 6 NGC5694 Type: Globular Cluster
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you see its core dancing? Its starl
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cosmologist Halton Arp (Max-Planck
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and kinked. All this detail is wrap
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telescope. But seeing it takes more
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streamers begin to appear, but they
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tounding, because NGC 6302 is a mag
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70 Southern Pinwheel NGC300 Type: S
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would John Herschel suddenly fault
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Dunlop discovered NGC 55 with his 9
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even when crossing the meridian. Co
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"nebulous clusters" (Class II); and
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galaxy's disk and halo. NGC 2477 ap
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condensed, almost to the very margi
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The asymmetry remains at high power
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other popular nickname, the Eight-B
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longed look, the object displays a
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times larger than the full Moon. In
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emains of a globular cluster that w
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he classified them accordingly. NGC
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NGC 6231). Under averted vision the
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7 7 Centaurus A NGC5128 Type: Pecul
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Harvard College Observatory's 24-in
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at 16 million light-years. If you s
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78 NGC 6541 Type: Globular Cluster
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seems to fragment into tiny stars,
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sense, evinced by any known cluster
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12th-magnitude double star. The clu
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original with Bayer, but goes back
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Omega Centauri is generally regarde
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glitter all come to mind as the clu
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shattered remains of their diminuti
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It's a nice even disk of l0th-magni
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with the fiery reddish light of hyd
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nebulosity when he viewed the regio
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the two jets of radio-wave-emitting
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pair of tweezers. A fairly bright s
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suggest that our universe may be on
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8 5 Omicron Velorum Cluster IC2391
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Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, however,
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much sky as does the full Moon, tho
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8 7 NGC 1261 Type: Globular Cluster
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timates, making it 2 billion years
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NGC 5822. Don't be surprised if you
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89 S Normae Cluster NGC 6087 Type:
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fact, if you look about 7' southwes
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lowing night fell clear, when Hersc
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NGC 2867 is a nitrogen-rich planeta
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halfway between M37 in Auriga (200
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9 2 Eta Carinae Nebula GC 3372 Type
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anch of cold, dark material. Indeed
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stretch 16 billion km from the cent
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the object was known to some civili
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east, and a dim lip of gas to the s
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1 0 1 NGC 6744 Type: Barred Spiral
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have been identified in NGC 6752's
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ightest spiral arm(s) to the north,
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his maiden voyage of discovery in 1
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simply takes much too much effort t
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very wide double of near-equal inte
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went out and looked at the cluster
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NGC 2516 is 60 million years young
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and contains some 1,890 members, wh
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9 8 Coalsack Cluster NGC 4609 Type:
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it near the Swan? There is a still
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with the naked eye is a challenge.
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1 0 0 Lambda Centauri Cluster Colli
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position updates to (2000.0) R.A. 1
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Eta Carinae Nebula. But remember th
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9th magnitude. Of the latter, 23 ha
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103 1 0 3 Tarantula Nebula; True Lo
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southern-sky explorer Abbe Nicolas
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ters it has had thus far with the g
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ly east of NGC 362 we find the magn
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the eye ever inward and takes your
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1 0 5 Southern Butterfly NGC 4833 T
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stars"). Lacaille also likened NGC
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is about 7' in length, and nearly 2
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evealed a significant blue-straggle
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ightest stars shine around 4th magn
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egion looks cold and disturbing, no
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The galaxy received some incidental
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This entry is obviously in error, b
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7 N G C 4 0 4 T y L p e n : G t a i
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pointed her 7x35 binoculars toward
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13 NGC 288 Type: Globular Cluster C
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your telescope on Eta Sculptoris an
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19 N G C 6 2 8 1 T y O p e C : n l
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C Name Type Con. R.A. Dec Mag. Size
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C Name Type Con. R.A. Dec Mag. Size
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Appendix B Why Messier Did N o t i
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A typical pattern for evening hunti
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Earth turns, the cluster would clim
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Initially Herschel made his living
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of the heavens with it. For his swe
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tube's front end. This meant that t
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Star in Collo Ceti" about the star
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years, Herschel would observe some
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fluid, but added that ages of obser
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Appendix D Photo Credits in order o
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A Abell426, 101 Acrux, 388, 392, 39
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index Caldwell 44, 173, 176-178 Cal
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and nebulae, 271, 274, 362 and open
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Hevelius, Johannes, 72, 81, 452 Hip
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M103, 49-50, 58-59 M110, 77 MACHOs.
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NGC 3324, 369 NGC 3372 (Caldwell 92
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Perseus Cluster, 101 Phi Cas Cluste
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Τ Tarantula Nebula (Caldwell 103),
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