Event Date: May 2nd
Time: 5:00 AM
Brief
The last time that I showed Pegasus the winged horse, it was not completely clear of the horizon while still dark enough to see all of the stars. Despite the Sun moving a little more towards Pegasus' rising part of the sky each day, the horse rises about four minutes earlier each day; this has helped make at least the square stars, easier to see with the eye alone. By early summer, these "body" stars will be well placed, high in the sky before dawn, and rising during early fall evening hours, as our nights start to quickly lengthen again. If your skies are also very clear, while still dark enough, use a telescope to find a deep-sky favorite: the Andromeda Galaxy, located in the namesake constellation near the "V" shape that I talked about a couple of weeks ago.
This first image shows the location of the galaxy, in relation to stars near (And)romeda's head. Remember that her head star is that often mistaken for one of Pegasus', although it is no longer his "belly" star.
Time: 5:00 AM
Brief
The last time that I showed Pegasus the winged horse, it was not completely clear of the horizon while still dark enough to see all of the stars. Despite the Sun moving a little more towards Pegasus' rising part of the sky each day, the horse rises about four minutes earlier each day; this has helped make at least the square stars, easier to see with the eye alone. By early summer, these "body" stars will be well placed, high in the sky before dawn, and rising during early fall evening hours, as our nights start to quickly lengthen again. If your skies are also very clear, while still dark enough, use a telescope to find a deep-sky favorite: the Andromeda Galaxy, located in the namesake constellation near the "V" shape that I talked about a couple of weeks ago.
This first image shows the location of the galaxy, in relation to stars near (And)romeda's head. Remember that her head star is that often mistaken for one of Pegasus', although it is no longer his "belly" star.
Detailed
The second image magnifies two of the labeled stars in the first image, and labels a few more.
Using Apheratz (label obstructed above by the M31 marking) as the head/former belly star mentioned in the brief,
a naked-eye viewer can follow that star to Pi And, to Mu And, then
almost perpendicular to the Galaxy. The skies for this hour are still
of deep twilight, and even if low towards the horizon, these And stars
may still visible to see through atmospheric pollution; if not, try in
2-3 weeks. The galaxy can be seen in deep twilight with a small
telescope, and even with the eye alone if no light pollution. Through a
small-field telescope, such as 1º, the core of the galaxy is the only
part easily visible. If viewed under dark enough conditions, more of
the galaxy can be viewed. With an angular size of more than 4 full
Moons tangent to each other, being slightly over 2º, seeing the entire
galaxy under a dark sky requires a low f-ratio telescope, such as 4 or
5. Photos of this galaxy are very impressive, using large-sized fields,
being the closest bright galaxy to our own. This final image shows the
galaxy via the software imaging, mainly to show its size and the field
required to fit it in effectively-- 3º working well. There are two
other smaller galaxies seen near this one. What are they? I will
answer that tomorrow.
 |
| .click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp. |
No comments:
Post a Comment