The Caldwell Objects

5 8
NGC 2360
Type: Open Cluster
Con: Canis Major
RA: 07 h 17.7 m
Dec:-15° 38'
Mag: 7.2; 7.0 (O'Meara)
Diam: 14.0'
Dist: 3,700 light-years
Disc: Caroline Herschel, 1785
W . H ERSCHEL: [Observed 4 February 1785] A
beautiful cluster of pretty compressed stars near
½° diameter. Caroline Herschel. (HVLI-12)
GC / NGC: Cluster, very large, rich, pretty
compressed, stars from magnitude 9 to 12.
C AROLINE H ERSCHEL WAS A BRIGHT LIGHT
bespattered by molten pitch …. I was even
shining in her brother William's life. Standing 4
obliged to feed [William Herschel] by putting the
feet, 2 inches high and singing with a soprano's
vitals by bits into his mouth; this was once the case
voice, she discovered eight comets; indexed,
when at the finishing of a 7 foot mirror he had not
expanded, and corrected John Flamsteed's
left his hands from it for 16 hours . . . "
"British Catalogue" of 3,000 stars; and completed
a catalog of 2,500 nebulae after her beloved When William turned his telescopes sky-
brother's death. For her numerous contributions ward in pursuit of new nebulae, Caroline would
to the science of astronomy the United record his observations. The following day she
Kingdom's Royal Astronomical Society awarded toiled over the lengthy calculations necessary to
her its gold medal in 1828. Her achievements reduce William's data.
grew out of her singular devotion for her brother In 1785, while assisting her brother in his
and his work. "Almost inevitably Caroline's role great Deep Sky Survey, Caroline Herschel dis-
changed from looking after William to helping covered a bright star cluster in Canis Major. At
him with his scientific activities," write her least that is what William's catalog entry for the
biographers John J. O'Connor and Edmund F object . implies: " beautiful A cluster of pretty
Robertson. As Caroline wrote:
compressed stars near ½° diameter. Caroline
Herschel." William assigned the number Η VII-12
Every leisure moment was eagerly snatched at for to the cluster. But his catalog's endnotes credit
resuming some work which was in progress, without Caroline with discovering Η VII-13 (NGC 2204),
taking time or changing dress, and many a lace ruffle not Η VII-12 (NGC 2360). Which
. . . was torn or
58
The Caldwell Objects 231