The Caldwell Objects

opposite side it is very faint and appears segmented
along its major axis. NGC 4656 is a large
system, with a physical diameter of 91,000 lightyears.
In long-exposure photographs the galaxy
resolves into a smattering of stars and Η II
regions, the brightest of which lie approximately
18" west of the apparent nucleus.
9
N G C 1 3 3 3
C o P n e : r s e u s
T y B p r e N i : e g b h u t l a
RA: 03 h 29.3 m
Dec: +31° 25'
Mag: 3.6
Dim: 6' x 3'
Dist: ~1,100 light-years
NGC 1333 is a simple but beautiful reflection
nebula. It lies 3¼° southwest of Omicron (o)
Persei and almost nicks the spot where Perseus,
Taurus, and Aries meet. At magnitude 3.6 the
nebula is quite bright, but it's also very tiny.
Several times I have swept it up during my
comet hunts (even in moonlight) with the 4-inch
refractor, and Brian Skiff and Christian
Luginbuhl say it's not difficult to see in a 60-mm
refractor. At first glance, the nebula has a round
form with a uniform luster, but closer inspection
reveals it to be a mottled kidney bean of light
elongated from north-northeast to southsouthwest.
On most star charts NGC 1333 is far from
eye-catching. In the second edition of Sky Atlas
2000.0, for instance, the symbol for NGC 1333 is
a tiny box, no bigger than the disk representing a
4th-magnitude star. The box looks like an
afterthought, perhaps a move to flesh out that
region of sky with pretty symbols. Certainly
observers moving their fingers
436
across their star charts while selecting objects for
a night's work would not stop there. NGC 1333 is
literally dwarfed by the Pleiades star cluster just
8½° to the southeast, and by the challenging but
famous California Nebula (NGC 1499) a similar
distance to the northeast. Yet surprisingly, at the
eyepiece, NGC 1333 is easier to see than the
Merope Nebula (IC 349).
I find the very simplicity of NGC 1333 an
attraction — the face of a shy specter masked in a
white veil. The nebula is illuminated by a
magnitude-10.5 star adorning its northeastern
corner like a jewel in a crown. Recent nearinfrared
images also reveal some 80 pre-mainsequence
stars embedded in this region of active
star formation. The dark nebula Barnard 205 lies
just to the south of NGC 1333, and its two fingers
of darkness seem to be pinching the reflection
nebula's southern tip. This dark nebula stretches
for nearly ½° and is a wonderfully complex
agglomeration of shadows. Exploring this
hidden corner of Perseus through the Genesis at
low power is like tiptoeing through an old,
forgotten house dusted with cobwebs and
littered with keepsakes.
1 0
N G C 1 6 4 7
T y O p e C : n l u s t e r
C o T n a : u r u s
RA: 04 h 45.7 m
Dec: +19° 07'
Mag: 6.4
Diam: 40'
Dist: 1,800 light-years
I thank my wife, Donna, for introducing me to
NGC 1647, a wonderful but somewhat neglected
open cluster near the V-shaped face of Taurus,
the Bull. One night Donna stood in the driveway
of our home in Volcano, Hawaii, and
Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects