Fun In Cassiopeia
by Roy Patton
During the last star party of the year (November 13, 2022), I was showing people M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and getting a lot of “WOW”s and “That's so cool”s. When the line was gone, there was a young girl standing there. I asked if there was anything she'd like to see. She replied, “Can I see the ET cluster?”
Now, I had never heard of such a thing, so I turned to the number one resource I had available to me, Jeremy Carlo, and asked him. He got out his phone and guided me to the cluster. I found it pretty quickly, and showed it to the girl. She was overjoyed in that way young people express it. That is to say, she said "cool". Apparently, her father had shown it to her recently, so it was something she knew. She came back later to see it again, so I know she really meant the "cool".
Just as a point of reference, the ET Cluster is also known as the Owl Cluster and NGC 457. It is found in Cassiopeia. When you find it, you will know it immediately. Just squint with your eyes closed and put on your best imagination hat and you can sort of make out the shape of a monopodal thing with it's two arms stretched out wide and two bright eyes looking back at you. I kid, but it's actually a very pretty cluster. The “eyes” really stand out. They are considerably brighter than the other stars in the cluster.
Anyway, that got me thinking about Cassiopeia, so I looked it up this morning. I normally don't do much observing in Cassiopeia, and just use it as a guidepost for M31, and the Double Cluster. Well, what a mistake that is. Did you know there are 35 open clusters in Cassiopeia? Some with nebulae! Who, besides Al Lamperti, knew that? There are also a couple of galaxies, and several what The Sky Live calls “HII Ionized Regions”. I can't wait to see those!
So now, I am going to make a concerted effort to check out Cassiopeia in depth.
I'm going to need a darker sky.
Too cold at Cherry Springs this time of year.
BMVO would be ideal, but I've never been there.
Green Lane it is!
When, though?
I'll wait until this cold wave leaves...and after Jeremy figures out how to transport his new 18” telescope. (You're going to need a bigger car.)