The Caldwell Objects

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weakens its impact. On paper Caldwell 8 is by no
means a showpiece. Yet, under a dark sky the
cluster can be spied in 7x35 binoculars. In fact, it
is quite noticeable as a 7' fuzzy patch due west of
a tight trapezoid of 7th-magnitude stars, the
northernmost two of which are nice binocular
doubles. Surprisingly, the cluster has more visual
punch than the data suggest,
and it appears even more attractive when
coupled with the neighboring asterism rich in
double stars.
Through the 4-inch, NGC 559 is a tight
cluster with a strong core of stars of similar
brightness (roughly 12th magnitude). At 23x the
dense core appears immersed in a faint mist of
unresolved starlight, with a trickle of faint
suns extending toward the north. The best
view comes at 72x, which reveals a wedge of
suns south of the cluster's center. The view
doesn't change much in larger apertures.
Describing her views through a 20-inch
reflector in Columbus, Texas, Barbara Wilson
called NGC 559 a "nice cluster, block-shaped,
with two chains of stars radiating from the
box, like a little dipper." At 150x Wilson says
the cluster is "pretty rich
42
with 50 to 60 stars seen against the glow of many
unresolved suns, the dimmest being around 14th
magnitude."
Perhaps it is an illusion, but, when seen through
the 4-inch at an altitude of 4,200 feet, the cluster
appears to contain many colorful stars that
glisten like jewels. The wedge of jewellike suns
mentioned above is contained in an arc of largely
unresolved star-light in the shape of a cup
(Wilson's "dipper," no doubt). The string of stars
extending northward curves to the west, then
south, where fainter suns gradually fade into
what can only be called a rim of starlight. This
faint rim connects to the southwestern tip of the
wedge. Another arc of stars to the east forms the
base of the cup, giving it a seemingly threedimensional
form. The faint glow of unresolved
starlight within the cup seems to be a brew of
fleeting vapors. With imagination this central
core takes on an eerie quality, that of a still
photograph of a ghostly jeweled goblet in the act
of vanishing. In a way, this metaphor reflects the
cluster's advanced age (1.8 billion years).
Deep-Sky Companions: The Caldwell Objects