The Caldwell Objects

the south-southwest. NGC 457, however, hides
in the glare of 5th-magnitude Phi (φ)
Cassiopeiae. Not surprisingly, amateurs tend to
point their telescopes more often to Μ103. But
the celestial winds are fast changing.
Classically, NGC 457 has been referred to as
the Phi Cas Cluster. But this humdrum moniker
fails to capture the cluster's spirit or to fire the
observer's imagination. So, despite the fact that
Robert Burnham Jr. spotlights NGC 457 in his
Celestial Handbook, and despite repeated
invitations from the late Walter Scott Houston to
seek out the Phi Cas Cluster, interest in NGC 457
fell short of making it a national or international
showpiece — until something magical happened.
In 1982 Steven Spielberg introduced Ε. Τ The
Extra-Terrestrial to the big screen. Five years later,
NGC 457 mysteriously exploded onto the
celestial stage. Amateurs began introducing NGC
457 to their peers, first byword of mouth, then
through their telescopes set up under the
shimmering Milky Way. By 1990 NGC 457 had
become one of the preferred
13
telescopic targets at star
parties across North
America and, undoubtedly,
in other parts of the world. I
was first introduced to the
cluster as recently as 1994
while attending StarFest, an
annual summer gathering
of amateur astronomers
outside Toronto, Ontario.
The sudden sensation can
be traced back to 1987,
though, when Tom
Lorenzin and Tim Sechler
compared NGC 457 with
Spielberg's charismatic
alien hob-
bit in their book 1000+: The Amateur Astronomer's
Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing. Of NGC 457
they write, "ET waves his arms at you, and
winks!" A search of the pre-1987 literature reveals
no widely recognized nickname other than "Phi
Cas" for the cluster.
As Ε. T. faded from the public scene, amateurs
began personalizing the cluster. Over the
years I have heard different telescope owners
refer to NGC 457 as the Owl, Airplane, Stick
Man, and Worry Doll Cluster. Some of these
names may have been around a lot longer than Έ.
T," but none of them had its universal charm or
staying power.
Ironically, Lorenzin and Sechler's popularization
of the Ε. T. Cluster may be doing science a
favor. The bright double star Phi Cassiopeiae
(magnitudes 5.0 and 7.0; 134" separation) that
marks E. T.'s eyes may not belong to the cluster.
Brent Archinal notes that a 1961 article titled
"Photometry of Stars in Galactic Cluster Fields"
contains some of the first good combined photoelectric
and photographic brightness measurements
of stars in open clusters. "From the
The Caldwell Objects 59