Category: Astronomy For Kids

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! It’s that time again and darker skies are in our favor for this weekend. Are you working towards Astronomical League studies? Then tag along as we seek out one of the most difficult of all targets – Palomar 5. But don’t despair – there’s just slightly easier ones to study, too! Come along for the double galaxy ride and the peak of two minor meteor showers as we head out into the night…

Friday, June 27 – As with all astronomical projects, there are sometimes difficult ones needed to complete certain fields of study – such as challenging globular clusters. Tonight we’ll take a look at one such cluster needed to complete your list and you’ll find it by using M5 as a guide.

Palomar 5 is by no stretch of the imagination easy. For those using GoTo systems and large telescopes, aiming is easy…but for star hoppers a bit of instruction goes a long way. Starting at M5 drop south for the double star 5 Serpentis and again south and slightly west for another, fainter double. Don’t confuse it with 6 Serpentis to the east. About half a degree west you’ll encounter an 8th magnitude star with 7th magnitude 4 Serpentis a half degree south. Continue south another half degree where you will discover a triangle of 9th magnitude stars with a southern one at the apex. This is home to Palomar 5 (RA 15 16 05 Dec 00 06 41).

Discovered by Walter Baade in 1950, this 11.7 magnitude, Class XII globular is anything but easy. At first it was believed to be a dwarf elliptical and possibly a member of our own Local Group of galaxies due to some resolution of its stars. Later studies showed Palomar 5 was indeed a globular cluster – but one in the process of being ripped apart by the tidal forces of the Milky Way.

75,000 light-years away from us and 60,000 light-years from the galactic center, Palomar 5’s members are escaping and leaving trails spanning as much as 13,000 light-years…a process which may have been ongoing for several billion years. Although it is of low surface brightness, even telescopes as small as 6″ can distinguish just a few individual members northwest of the 9th magnitude marker star – but even telescopes as large as 31″ fail to show much more than a faint sheen (under excellent conditions) with a handful of resolvable stars. Even though it may be one of the toughest you’ll ever tackle, be sure to take the time to make a quick sketch of the region to complete your studies. Good luck!

While you’re out, keep a watch for a handful of meteors originating near the constellation of Corvus. The Corvid meteor shower is not well documented, but you might spot as many as ten per hour.

Saturday, June 28 – Before you start hunting down the faint fuzzies and spend the rest of the night drooling on the Milky Way, let’s go globular and hunt up two very nice studies worthy of your time. Starting at Alpha Librae, head five degrees southeast for Tau, and yet another degree southeast for the splendid field of NGC 5897 (RA 15 17 24 Dec -21 00 36).

This class XI globular might appear very faint to binoculars, but it definitely makes up for it in size and beauty of field. It was first viewed by William Herschel on April 25, 1784 and logged as H VI.8 – but with a less than perfect notation of position. When he reviewed it again on March 10, 1785 he logged it correctly and relabeled it as H VI.19. At a distance of a little more than 40,000 light-years, this 8.5 magnitude globular will show some details to the larger telescope, but remain unresolved to smaller ones. As a halo globular cluster, NGC 5897 certainly shows signs of being disrupted, and has a number of blue stragglers, as well as four newly-discovered variables of the RR Lyrae type.

Now let’s return to Alpha Librae and head about a fistwidth south across the border into Hydra and two degrees east of star 57 for NGC 5694 – also in an attractive field (RA 14 39 36 Dec 26 32 18).

Also discovered by Herschel, and cataloged as H II.196, this class VII cluster is far too faint for binoculars at magnitude 10, and barely within reach of smaller scopes. As one of the most remote globular clusters in our galaxy, few telescopes can hope to resolve this more than 113,000 light-year distant ball of stars. Its brightest member is only of magnitude 16.5, and it contains no known variables. Traveling at 190 kilometers per second, metal-poor NGC 5694 will not have the same fate as NGC 5897…for this is a globular cluster which is not being pulled apart by our galaxy – but escaping it!

Sunday, June 29 – Today we celebrate the birthday of George Ellery Hale, who was born in 1868. Hale was the founding father of the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Although he had no education beyond his baccalaureate in physics, he became the leading astronomer of his day. He invented the spectroheliograph, coined the word astrophysics, and founded the Astrophysical Journal and Yerkes Observatory. At the time, Mt. Wilson dominated the world of astronomy, confirming what galaxies were and verifying the expanding universe cosmology, making Mt. Wilson one of the most productive facilities ever built. When Hale went on to found Palomar Observatory, the 5-meter (200″) telescope was named for him, and was dedicated on June 3, 1948. It continues to be the largest telescope in the continental United States.

Tonight, while we have plenty of dark skies to go around, let’s go south in Libra and have a look at the galaxy pairing NGC 5903 and NGC 5898. You’ll find them about three degrees northeast of Sigma, and just north of a pair of 7th magnitude stars.

While northernmost NGC 5903 seems to be nothing more than a faint elliptical with a brighter concentration toward the center and an almost identical elliptical – NGC 5898 – to the southwest, you’re probably asking yourself… Why the big deal over two small ellipticals? First off, NGC 5903 is Herschel III.139 and NGC 5898 is Herschel III.138…two more to add to your studies. And second? The Very Large Array has studied this galaxy pair in the spectral lines of neutral hydrogen. The brighter of the pair, NGC 5898, shows evidence of ionized gas which has been collected from outside its galactic realm – while NGC 5903 seems to be running streamers of material toward its neighbor. A double-galaxy, double-accretion event!

But there’s more…

Look to the southeast and you’ll double your pleasure and double your fun as you discover two double stars instead of just one! Sometimes we overlook field stars for reasons of study – but don’t do it tonight. Even mid-sized telescopes can easily reveal this twin pair of galaxies sharing “their stuff,” as well as a pair of double stars in the same low power field of view. (Psst…slim and dim MCG 043607 and quasar 1514-241 are also here!) Ain’t it grand?

After the black of midnight and out of the blue comes a meteor shower! Keep watch tonight for the June Draconids. The radiant for this shower will be near handle of Big Dipper – Ursa Major. The fall rate varies from 10 to 100 per hour, and lack of lunacy means a great time for the offspring of comet Pons-Winnecke. On a curious note, today in 1908 was when the great Tunguska impact happened in Siberia. A fragment of a comet, perhaps?

Good luck and have a terrific weekend!

This week’s awesome image credits are: Palomar 5 (center of image) – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech, NGC 5897 – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech, NGC 5694 – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech, and the field of NGC 5903 and NGC 5898 – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! As the Moon slowly departs from the early evening scene, we have the chance to start the weekend off with shooting stars as we pass through a branch of the Ophiuchid meteor stream. Over the next few days we’ll take a closer look at variable stars, new star clusters and old friends as we head out into the night together…

Friday, June 20, 2008 – Although we will have Moon to contend with in the predawn hours, we welcome the “shooting stars” as we pass through another portion of the Ophiuchid meteor stream. The radiant for this pass will be nearer Sagittarius and the fall rate varies from 8 to 20, but it can sometimes produce unexpectedly more.

For variable star fans, let’s head towards the constellation of Corona Borealis and focus our attention on S – located just west of Theta – the westernmost star in the constellation’s arc formation. At magnitude 5.3, this long-term variable takes almost a year to go through its changes. It usually far outshines the 7th magnitude star to its northeast – but will drop to a barely visible magnitude 14 at minimum. Compare it to the eclipsing binary U Coronae Borealis about a degree northwest. In slightly over three days this Algol type star will range by a full magnitude as its companions draw together.

Saturday, June 21, 2008 – Summer Solstice occurs today at the zero hour. So what exactly is it? Solstice is nothing more than an astronomical term for the moment when one hemisphere of the Earth is tilted the most toward the Sun. Today, the Sun is about 24 degrees above the celestial equator – its highest point of the year. The day of summer solstice also has the longest period of daylight…and the shortest of night; this occurs around six months from now for the Southern Hemisphere.

Tonight let’s look forward to the coming summer as we hop a fingerwidth northeast of Beta Ophiuchi (RA 17 46 18 Dec +05 43 00) to a celebration in starlight known as IC 4665. Very well suited to binoculars or even the smallest optics at low power, this magnificent open cluster is even visible to the unaided eye as a hazy patch.

Hanging out in space far from the galactic plane, IC 4665 is anywhere from 30 to 40 million years old – relatively young in astronomical terms! This places the cluster somewhere between the age of the Hyades and the Pleiades. At one time the cluster was believed to have been home to an unusually large number of spectroscopic binaries. While this has been disproved, scopists will enjoy powering up on the approximate 50 members of this association to search for true multiple stars. Enjoy it tonight!

Sunday, June 22, 2008 – Today celebrates the founding of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1675. That’s 333 years of astronomy! Also on this date in history, in 1978, James Christy of the US Naval Observatory in Flagstaff Arizona discovered Pluto’s satellite Charon.

While observing Pluto is quite possible with a mid-sized (8″) telescope, careful work is needed to separate and identify it from field stars. Just a few days ago, Pluto reached opposition, meaning it is viewable all night. Since it will take several nights of observation for confirmation, right now would be an excellent time to begin your Pluto quest. With a little research you’ll find plenty of on-line locator charts to help guide you on your way!

For observers of all skill levels and equipment, it’s simply time to stop and have a look at a seasonal favorite which is now nearly overhead—M13. You’ll find this massive globular cluster quite easy to locate on the western side of the Hercules “keystone” about a third of the way between the northern and southern stars—Eta and Zeta.

At a little brighter than magnitude 6, this 25,100 light-year distant globular cluster can be seen unaided from a dark sky location. First noted by Edmond Halley in 1714, the “Great Hercules Cluster” was cataloged by Messier on June 1, 1764. Filled with hundreds of thousands of stars, yet with only one young blue star, M13 could be as much as 14 billion years old.

Thirty-four years ago, the Great Hercules Cluster was chosen by the Arecibo Observatory as the target for the first radio message delivered into space, yet it will be a message that won’t be received for over 25 centuries. Look at it with wonder tonight… For the light that left as you are viewing it tonight did so at a time when the Earth was coming out of the Ice Age. Our early ancestors were living in caves and learning to use rudimentary tools. How evolved would our civilization be if we ever received an answer to
our call?!

Wishing you clear skies and a wonderful weekend!

The week’s awesome images are Theta Coronae Borealis – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech, Solstice and Equinox – Credit: NASA, IC 4665 – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech, Pluto and Charon – Credit: NASA, and M13: “The Great Hercules Cluster” is the inspiring work of none other than R. Jay GaBany.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! As the summer heats up for the northern hemisphere and the winter cools down the southern, we’re in for interesting celestial scenery over the next few days. No special equipment is needed – only your eyes and the knowledge of knowing where and when to look….

On the universal date of Sunday, June 8, 2008 the Red Planet – Mars – and the Moon will make a splendid showing for all. As skies darken, look for impressive pair along the western ecliptic. For most of us, Mars and the earthshine Moon will only be separated by about a degree, but for lucky observers in New Zealand, this will be an occultation event! (For specific details on times and areas, please check IOTA information.) Get out your binoculars and have a look. Even the youngest SkyWatcher will easily be able to find Mars!

While the Phoenix mission is still making big news, use this opportunity to do some public astronomy outreach. Point the pair out in the sky to someone and tell what you know. Around 40 years has elapsed since humankind has first visited one – and then the other. How did our original expeditions to the Moon lead scientists to develop ever better instruments for remote study? How has our exploratory spacecraft evolved?

If you think that’s cool… Then stay tuned for Monday, June 9, 2008 when the Moon, Saturn and Regulus team up in the night sky. To the unaided eye, the trio will make a lovely triangle with the Ringed Planet and the Little King situated to the north of Selene. Again, it’s a great time to do some public outreach! Point a telescope Saturn’s way. Titan – Saturn’s largest moon – is visibly bright and can be seen in even small telescopes. Explain how our original fly-bys and landings on our own Moon led us on to explore a moon on a distant world! What did we find on Titan? How can it compare to what we discovered on the Moon and Mars?

Don’t forget Regulus, either. The light you see from it on this night would have left roughly in 1931 – long before expeditions to the Moon, Saturn and Mars were even dreamed of. At about three and a half times more massive than our own Sol, Regulus is one hot customer when it comes to spin rate. Revolving completely on its axis in a little less than 16 hours, oblate Regulus would fly apart if it were moving any faster! Even though it’s been around for a few million years, Regulus isn’t alone, either. The “Little King” is a multiple star system composed of a hot, bright, bluish-white star with a pair of small, faint companions.

Even if you only use your eyes, the next few days are a great opportunity to share what you love and know with others… Enjoy!

Moon Occulting Mars Image – Credit: Ron Dantowitz, Clay Center Observatory at Dexter and Southfield Schools. Saturn and Titan – Credit: Casinni/NASA. Regulus vs. the Sun – Wenjin Huang

“Everybody dancing in the moonlight… Dancing in the moonlight… Everybody feeling warm and bright… It’s such a fine and natural sight… Everybody dancing in the moonlight.” Oh! Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Pardon me while I celebrate the return of Spring and enjoy viewing the Moon. This weekend will be a terrific time for you to dance, too. Talk a waltz around the “Bay of Rainbows” as you view Sinus Iridum and enjoy the cool blues with Spica. You’ll be seeing double before the weekend is out. Time to dust off the optics and turn and eye to the sky, because… Here’s what’s up!

Friday, May 16, 2008 – Tonight would be a wonderful opportunity for Moongazers to return to the surface and have a look at the peaceful Sinus Iridum area. If you’ve been clouded out before, be sure to have a look for the telescopic Lunar Club challenges Promontoriums Heraclides and LaPlace. What other craters can you discover in the area?

If you’re up for a bit more of a challenge, then let’s head about 59 light-years away for star 70, in Virgo. You’ll find it located about six degrees northeast of Eta (RA 13 28 25 Dec +13 46 43) and right in the corner of the Coma-Boötes-Virgo border. So what’s so special about this G-type, very normal-looking, 5th magnitude star?

It’s a star that has a planet.

Long believed to be a spectroscopic binary because of its 117 day shift in color, closer inspection has revealed that 70 Virginis actually has a companion planet. Roughly seven times larger than Jupiter and orbiting no further away than Mercury from its cooler-than-Sol parent star, 70 Virginis B just might well be a planet cool enough to support water in its liquid form. How “cool” is that? Try about 85 degrees Celsius…

Saturday, May 17, 2008 – Today in 1835, J. Norman Lockyer was born. While that name might not stand out, Lockyer was the first to note previously unknown absorption lines while making visual spectroscopic studies of the Sun in 1868. Little did he know at the time, he had correctly identified the second most abundant element in our universe – helium – an element not discovered on Earth until 1891! Also known as the “Father of Archeoastronomy,” Sir Lockyer was one of the first to make the astronomical connection with ancient structures such as Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. (As a curious note, 14 years after Lockyer’s notation of helium, a Sun-grazing comet made its appearance in photographs of the solar corona taken during a total eclipse in 1882… It hasn’t been seen since.)

If you would like to see a helium-rich star, look no further tonight than Alpha Virginis – Spica. You can’t miss it because it’s so near the Moon! As the sixteenth brightest star in the sky, this brilliant blue-white “youngster” appears to be about 275 light-years away and is about 2300 times brighter than our own Sun. Although we cannot see it visually, Spica is a double star. Its spectroscopic companion is roughly half its size and is also rich in helium.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 – On this day in 1910, Comet Halley transited the Sun, but could not be detected visually. Since the beginning of astronomical observation, transits, eclipses and occultations have provided science with some very accurate determinations of size. Since Halley could not be spotted against the solar surface, we knew almost a century ago that the nucleus had to be smaller than about 100 kilometers. To get a rough idea of this size, take a look at crater Copernicus about midway along the western hemisphere of the Moon. What’s its diameter? Oh, about the same size as a certain comet!

Now let’s have a look at a very bright and changeable lunar feature which is often overlooked. Starting with the great grey oval of Grimaldi, let your eyes slide along the terminator toward the south until you encounter the bright crater Byrgius. Named for Joost Bürgi, who made a sextant for Tycho Brahe, this “seen on the curve” crater is really quite large with a diameter of 87 kilometers. Perhaps its most interesting feature is the high-albedo Byrgius A, which sits along its eastern wall line and produces a wonderfully bright ray system. While it’s noted as a Lunar Club II challenge, it’s also a great crater to help add to your knowledge of selenography!

It’s time to add to our double star list as we hunt down Zeta Boötes located about seven degrees southeast of Arcturus (RA 14 41 08 Dec +13 43 42). This is a delightful multiple star system for even small telescopes – but not an easy one. The Zeta pairing has an extremely elliptical orbit: the distance between the stars varies from as little as the Earth-Sun distance to as much as 1.5 times the radius of Pluto’s orbit!

Another great target for a bright night is Delta Corvi (RA 12 29 51 Dec -16 30 55). 125 light-years away, it displays a yellowish-colored primary and a slightly blue secondary that’s an easily split pair in any telescope, and a nice visual double with Eta in binoculars. Use low power and see if you can frame this bright grouping of stars in the same eyepiece field.

Wising you good luck, clear skies and a wonderful weekend! 😉

This week’s awesome photos are of Sinus Iridum and Copernicus by the one and only Wes Higgins, 70 Virginis – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech and Alpha Virginis: Spica, by none other than the incredibly talented John Chumack. Spectacular!

Last week we gave you advice on how to choose a pair of binoculars for astronomy. This week we help you put them to use by viewing some great binocular astronomy targets. Now that the Moon is quickly leaving the early evening skies, we’re ready to begin. Just give yourself ample time to allow your eyes to dark adapt. No matter what size binoculars you have, or what your binocular astronomy experience may be, there are things I think you’ll enjoy viewing. All you’ll need to do is follow the instructions, wait for some clear skies and use the rough location binocular star charts provided. Remember, if you don’t have success the first time, try again! Now, if you’re ready, then dust off your optics and let’s step outside…

Binocular Astronomy Targets for Small Binoculars

For those using binoculars in the 5X25, 10X25, 5X30 and 10X30 range, there’s many cool objects that you can see. For now, lets start in the constellation of Cancer. For most observers, the Cancer is terribly dim and difficult to spot in light polluted skies – but it’s deep space objects aren’t. If you cannot locate Cancer’s primary stars visually, begin scanning the skies equidistantly between Gemini and Leo. Our first binocular object is seen as a hazy visual patch at a dark sky location and will leap out in small binoculars.


M44 – Galileo was one of the first to view this open star cluster with a visual aid. When you find it, you will know the “Beehive” because it is literally a swarm of stars! At about 577 light years distant and an estimated 730 million years old, this bright cluster averages a magnitude of 3.5 and will cover about 1/3 the field of view. While only about 20 or more stars will be readily visible to small aperature, the cluster contains more than 200 of the 350 stars in the area which have been confirmed as members.

Now, move the binoculars slowly southeast and you’ll spy our next target:


M67 – Discovered before 1779 by Johann Gottfried Koehler, the open cluster is one of the oldest known at 3.2 billion years. Charles Messier independently rediscovered M67, resolved it into stars, and cataloged it on April 6, 1780 and you can see why its faint signature could have been mistaken as cometary for small astronomy binoculars can’t quite resolve it either! Believe it or not, M67 is about the same age as our solar system and has about the same order of magnitude when seen from space. Enjoy its small, galaxy like appearance.


Time to head over to the Big Dipper and star our hunt for another two difficult to recognize constellations – Canes Venetici and Coma Berenices. Our two binocular targets in this area are also very bright, but not easy to find under bright skies. Using Ursa Major as your guide, follow the arc of the handle to the east for Arcturus. Got it? Good! Now look at the end of the handle again and you will see a faint star just a couple of fingerwidths away… That’s Cor Caroli. Move your binoculars between these two stars and our next target will smack you right in the eye…


M3 – Outstanding globular cluster M3 was discovered 1764 by Charles Messier and contains roughly a half million stars. It was Messier’s first original discovery and he logged it on May 3rd, 1764. If you’ve ever seen a comet, then you’ll know why this particular object closely resembles one. In smaller optics, you simply cannot resolve the stars in this 33,900 light year distant globular cluster. In small binoculars it will appear as nothing more than a small, round smudge… But what a smudge! It could be as big as 22 light years across and as old as 26 billion years.

Now begin moving south for another one… When the entire field of view explodes into stars? You’ve found it…


Melotte 111 – Is a real binocular beauty and belongs to a different study class of open clusters. First cataloged by Ptolemy and cataloged again by P.J. Melotte in 1915, these big, loose open clusters took a lot of study to prove the involved stars were truly associated. While apparently the Coma Berenices cluster is essentially “sitting still” in space from our perspective, it just leaves us a much longer time to enjoy this triple handful of bright stars.

Binocular Astronomy Targets for Large Binoculars

If you’re using binoculars that range into the 10X50 or larger size, then a whole new world of binocular astronomy opens up to you. While all of the above binocular targets are equally grand in your view as well, there’s even more waiting to be discovered. If you’re like I am, a challenge of my observing skills and equipment is always welcomed. That having been said, find some dark skies and head towards Leo. Just remember, as more binocular targets come into play, the more wide field star charts become crowded! Head for the area just south of the triangle that marks Leo’s hips…


M65, M66 and NGC 3628 – Depending on the field of view size of your binoculars, this trio of galaxies will be visible in about one third to one fourth of the area you see. Don’t expect them to walk right out, but don’t sell your binoculars short, either. The M65 and M66 pair have higher surface brightness and sufficient size to be noticed as two opposing faint smudges. NGC 3623 is spot on the same magnitude, but is edge on in presentation instead of face-on. This makes it a lot harder to spot, but chances are very good your averted vision will pick it up while studying the M65/66 pair. The “Leo Trio” makes for a fine challenge!


M105 – Now back to Leo’s belly and let’s find M105. Discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 24, 1781, M105 is the brightest elliptical galaxy in the Leo I or M96 group of galaxies. Again, it’s a challenge object that requires good skies and decent binocular aperture to make out this egg-shaped contrast change. It you think it’s boring, the be sure to brag to the folks at work that your binoculars are capable of seeing something 38 million light years away!


M96 – Not more than a binocular field south, is M96 – the brightest spiral in the group. Pierre Méchain discovered M96, together with M95, on March 20, 1781. While spiral structure is not something you’ll pick out as well in binoculars as a telescope, take your time when you view and you’ll notice the shape of M96 is far more round than that of M105 and that it won’t appear as condensed. If this challenge isn’t enough for you, see if you can spy M95 just to the west. It’s a magnitude fainter!

As always sky conditions play a great role as to what you can see and when. What appears to be a clear night might hold a fine layer of cloud haze that blocks you from seeing M44 unaided, or makes a galaxy harder to see when you know your binoculars are capable. Have patience, get plenty of practice and you’ll enjoy binocular astronomy just like a pro!