The Caldwell Objects

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70 & 72 one roughly 8.5-magnitude star, to its east. I really needed averted vision to make out the spindle in binoculars. With a semidirect gaze the galaxy appears to have a slightly elliptical center with a hint of tapered edges. At 23x the 4-inch immediately reveals NGC 55's splendor. At a glance the galaxy looks like a beautiful comet, with a graceful dust tail extending to the east-southeast and a small antitail to the west-northwest. The view becomes three-dimensional if you imagine a comet racing toward you at a slightly inclined angle. Make sure you spend time with this galaxy. The longer you look at it, the more you should see. Gradually, the nuclear region should begin to appear more irregular, and faint stars should begin to appear along its length. I like to imagine the galaxy as a squashed comet — like the one Carolyn Shoemaker discovered on photographic plates taken by her husband Eugene and by David Levy. Carolyn called that broken-up comet a "string of pearls" after seeing an image of it taken with the Spacewatch telescope. (That comet, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, ultimately smashed into Jupiter.) As I see it, NGC 55 is an extragalactic String of Pearls. Curiously, under averted vision its eastern segment (IC 1537) seems to pulsate with dim, glittering lights. The effect is most dramatic when I look toward the nucleus at 23x but keep my attention on IC 1537. It's like a flashing signal reminding me to use higher magnification. At medium magnification NGC 55 is stunning. Ribbons of dark material lace its entire nuclear region; the "comet" has been snared in a black net. The scene recalls M82, the fabulous starburst galaxy in Ursa Major. Concentrate on NGC 55's core with averted vision and it should scintillate with faint fuzzes and stars. One phenomenal rift slices through the eastern end of the central bulge before it curls around the 282 dense core like warped metal. It's as if tiny explosions have blown apart the hull of this extragalactic traveler, which is tipping to the northwest and sinking into a black sea; any turbulence in our atmosphere will cause the dimmest parts to ripple as if against this "ship's" hull. The galaxy's fainter eastern segment is also highly fractured and dappled with clusters of faint stars. This ethereal beauty recalls the words quoted by Strepsiades in Aristophanes's The Clouds: "the impetuous tempests, which float through the heavens... with aerial wings, loaded with mists." Despite NGC 55's modest overall surface brightness, its bright nuclear region takes high magnification well. In fact, I think the nuclear region looks best at high power. Here the dark rifts can be seen weaving through the superimposed stars and knots like streams covered with black ice flowing through banks of snow. The sight must be glorious in larger telescopes. Through her 17½-inch f/4.5 reflector Barbara Wilson saw NGC 55 as a "long streak narrower at one end with mottling in the central nuclear region. The galaxy extends beyond the field of the eyepiece at 95x. Incredible." NGC 55 is without a doubt one of the most spectacular galaxies available to amateurs. But observers at midnorthern latitudes have it tough, since the galaxy is so low in their skies, Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects
even when crossing the meridian. Consider Houston's views: "While traveling in Central America I turned my 4-inch rich-field reflector to this galaxy and could see mottling all along its length. At home in Connecticut, however, it's a different story; I feel grateful just to see it with my 4-inch Clark refractor. Even so, on The Caldwell Objects 70 & 72 exceptional nights I've glimpsed some mottling with a 4-inch off-axis reflector." If you're ever far south with a telescope at your disposal and Sculptor is available for viewing, do not hesitate; turn your sights immediately to this extragalactic wonder and enjoy the beauty of our hobby. 283
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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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trickle into the pool surrounding t
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2 0 North America Nebula NGC 7000 T
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egion's size and mass extreme when
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The Caldwell Objects 20 87
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2 1 Box Galaxy NGC 4449 Type: Irreg
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fuse but obvious glow of patchy lig
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qualifier—the word "light" — ha
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with a sheen of light, especially a
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1003, NGC 1023, and NGC 1058 (a nic
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Way) that pop in and out of view as
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RA: 03 h 19 m 48 s Dec: +41° 30.7'
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Through the 4-inch, NGC 1275 is les
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(300,000 light-years), Pal 4 (360,0
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26 Silver Needle Galaxy NGC 4244 Ty
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2 7 Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 Type:
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Observatory, England) still lists a
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pie refractors and inefficient spec
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29 NGC 5005 Type: Mixed Spiral Gala
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s h a edges. r p However, Christian
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ulars; challenge yourself and your
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NGC 7331 is extended much farther t
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away" stars escaped the confines of
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sweep the telescope in a north-sout
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highly suspect by some. However, in
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33 Network Nebula; Bridal Veil Nebu
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A quarter-second later, the star en
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under the dark skies of Seagrave Ob
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35 NGC 4889 Type: Elliptical Galaxy
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magnitude 12.2 some 18' to the east
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36 NGC 4559 Type: Mixed Spiral Gala
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Comae Berenices, the obvious northe
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3 7 NGC 6885 Type: Open Cluster Con
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pressed, stars of magnitude 6 to 11
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of Herschel's telescope. W then e e
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see the dark needle near the third
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sion of a "thin flat ring of enormo
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(which does not appear on Sky Atlas
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not be found in planetary nebulae,
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star in a large naked-eye triangle
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4 0 NGC 3626 Type: Lenticular Galax
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40 NGC 4546 in Virgo, NGC 4138 in C
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Northern Hemisphere, and people cel
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magnitude field star 2' to the nort
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this state of affairs.) The Hyades
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4 2 NGC 7006 Type: Globular Cluster
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each square arcminute of its disk s
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4 3 Electric Arc NGC 7814 Type: Spi
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hook as my "train route." Start at
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230 billion Suns and a physical dia
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4 5 NGC 5248 Type: Mixed Spiral Gal
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of the field. Those living under da
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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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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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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
Page 249 and 250: 5 8 NGC 2360 Type: Open Cluster Con
Page 251 and 252: core and limber arms, which, he wro
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Page 259 and 260: war. X-ray images taken by the Rosa
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Page 263 and 264: 62 Milkweed Seed Galaxy NGC247 Type
Page 265 and 266: through the narrow haze. But give t
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Page 271 and 272: any large telescope that can provid
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Page 277 and 278: NGC 253 is the brightest member of
Page 279 and 280: magnitude stars, one just to the ea
Page 281 and 282: 6 6 NGC5694 Type: Globular Cluster
Page 283 and 284: you see its core dancing? Its starl
Page 285 and 286: cosmologist Halton Arp (Max-Planck
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Page 289 and 290: telescope. But seeing it takes more
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Page 295 and 296: 70 Southern Pinwheel NGC300 Type: S
Page 297 and 298: would John Herschel suddenly fault
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Page 309 and 310: The asymmetry remains at high power
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Page 315 and 316: times larger than the full Moon. In
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Page 327 and 328: at 16 million light-years. If you s
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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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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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104 NGC 362 Type: Globular Cluster
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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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107 NGC 6101 Type: Globular Cluster
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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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