The Caldwell Objects

43 & 44
then tapers off to form a short and extremely dim
needle of light. No feature like this can be seen on
the northwestern end.
Higher power does not enhance the view. In
fact, with it the galaxy is much more difficult to
observe because its dim light is being spread over
a greater area. But with patience the view
supports all that was seen at the other
magnifications. The neighboring 7.2-magni-tude
star (which appears in the photograph on page
173) looks distinctly yellowish, but this might
have been caused by smog from neighboring
Kilauea, since the star has a blue-white spectral
type of AO. Vog (volcanic smog) tends to redden
starlight, and the effect is especially noticeable at
high magnifications.
Out of idle curiosity, on one night in
February 1997 I decided to try for NGC 7814
from inside the Dillingham Ranch house, which
has large glass windows. Earlier experiments had
shown that the windows did not visibly affect
star images at 23x. But I wondered how the glass
would affect dim nebulous objects like NGC
7814. (Apparently the notion of the Great Square
as a "window" spurred me to try this.) Alas, I
could not detect the galaxy through the
windows, though I did see it once I moved my
telescope outdoors. On one sparkling, clear night
in November 1999 NGC 7814 was nearly
overwhelmed by light from a four-day-old
Moon. This suggests that light pollution will
certainly compromise its visibility in small
telescopes.
Our second Caldwell galaxy, NGC 7479, lies
about 3° south of Alpha (α) Pegasi, or Markab,
the southwestern corner of the Great Square; it's
also 4½° east of magnitude-4.2 Xi (ξ) Pegasi in
the Horse's mane. Observers with telescopes on
equatorial mounts should take these "express
routes" to the galaxy. Here are some other fun
ways to find it. If the owner of a Telrad sighting
device places Markab on the
176
northern side of her finder's third and outermost
ring, NGC 7479 will be just within the southern
side of the second, or middle, ring. A Qwik Point
owner should place his LED spot near the
imaginary southern apex of a right triangle made
with Markab and Xi Pegasi. You can also star-hop
from 55 Pegasi, the westernmost of four 5thmagnitude
stars forming a tight 1°-long trapezoid
5½° south of Markab. From 55 Pegasi, follow a
chain of three 7th- to 8th-magnitude stars (each
separated by less than 1°) to the north-northwest;
NGC 7479 will be ½° northeast of the last star in
the chain, at the end of another chain of 9th- to
llth-mag-nitude stars. (The former chain, but not
the latter, is shown on our finder chart below.)
NGC 7479 is a highly asymmetrical barred
spiral that belongs to the Pegasus Cloud of
galaxies, a generous gathering of 51 island universes
some 100 million light-years distant. The
galaxy is slightly more than twice as far as NGC
7814, yet it shines with nearly the same
brightness and appears nearly as large in angular
terms. That's because the system is quite large
intrinsically, having a total mass of
Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects