#deep space objects

The constellation of Canis Minor, or the little dog can be found riding the back of the Unicorn Monoceros, and not so far from Orion and the Great Dog Canis Major.

Despite it's size, The constellation's two primary stars are fascinating, with Procyon being a star very much in our backyard. In fact, the constellation was called Procyon by the Ancient Greeks (meaning "Coming before the Dog") which was translated into Latin as Antecanis, Praecanis, or variations thereof, by Cicero and others. Roman writers also appended the descriptors parvus, minor or minusculus ("small" or "lesser", for its faintness).

And thus, the star ended up being named Procyon, and the constellation by the Latin, little dog.

Procyon is a spectroscopic binary, meaning we cannot directly see the other star, but it shows up in a spectrogram as the orbit swings towards and away from us, changing the EM we receive from it. Procyon B like Sirius B is a white dwarf.

The star itself lies just 11.46 light years from Earth, and is an F type star coming towards the end of it's main sequence and therefore is bloating out. It's mass is 1.5 times that of our star and twice the radius.

This is expected over the next 100 million years to expand to up to 80-150 times the diameter as it enters it's red giant phase.

Gomeisa

Gomeisa's name comes from the Arabic al-ghumaisa' or the blurry eyed one. It's a beautiful B type star 160 light years from Earth and still in it's main sequence of hydrogen burning.

As a B type star, it's blue-white and won't live beyond a few hundred million years in total, making it a fairly new star. It's thought to also have a close companion making it too a binary system.

The constellation doesn't have a huge amount of deep space objects, but the brightest galaxy is NGC 2485.

The Constellation of Delphinus

The name you'll not be too surprised to discover is the Latinised form of the Greek δελφίς (Delphis, or Dolphin in English), it's a small constellation based in the Northern Hemisphere, but with a special place in the history of naming of stars.

Alpha and Beta Delphini have peculiar names, Sualocin and Rotanev, but if you look closely and reverse the star names you get Nicolaus Venator !

So who was this Nicolaus Venator, and how on earth did he come to have two stars named after him. It turns out, these star names had no previous history until the Palermo Catalogue was published in 1814, and working at the Palermo Observatory was one Niccolo Cacciatore. It wasn't for 45 more years that a British astronomer and reverend Thomas Webb worked out, that the name in English meant Nicholas Hunter, and the Latinized form of this is Nicolaus Venator.

Nobody is quite sure how the good Reverend managed to work it out, but it seems wholly plausible that a bored Cacciatore who was working on the catalogue decided to enter his name into history, and so it remains.

α Delphini is a system 254 light years from Earth and made up of 6 stars, the primary star is a B9IV class star, meaning it was a blue star which has recently started the move away from the main sequence, as it moves to helium burning in the core, and bloats outwards, changing colour as it's surface temperature expands and therefore reduces in temperature.

Deep Space Objects

Planetary Nebula NGC 6891 and 6905

Globular Clusters NGC 6934 and 7006

Deep space objects are not just for those with access to large telescopes or for Hubble to bring to us, some of the most common catalogued objects are visible with binoculars.

When it comes to binoculars and back garden telescopes, the most important factor isn't magnification, as the greater the magnification, the dimmer the object becomes, even if it looks larger.

Rather, you want to find the largest aperture, the size of the light gathering lens or mirror. That said, any pair of binoculars lying around is going to be better than what you can see with your naked eyes, particularly if you're living in a major conurbation where light pollution obscures so much of the night sky.

M45 - Pleiades - Taurus, Mag 1.2, naked eye

As featured recently on this blog, the open cluster Pleiades are visible with the naked eye as a smudge of stars, often referred to as the Seven Sisters and used as a eye sight challenge in the past. To get a sight of the nebula that glows blue (as the stars are blue giants), a good steady view with binoculars should reveal this.

A hint, sometimes with deep space objects, the best way to view them is not to look directly at the object, but rather, look with the side of your eye, and the colours seem to stand out much more than directly observing can.

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy - Andromeda, Mag 3.4, naked eye (but best with binoculars)

Theoretically bright enough to see with the naked eye, and in dark areas this may appear as a slight cloud over an area around the size of the moon, but in cities, Binoculars are needed to see this, with the structure just about visible for those with keen sight.

IC 1396 - Elephant Trunk Nebula - Cepheus - Mag 3.5, binoculars

While in the darkest of environments you can view this with the naked eye, everywhere else a pair of binoculars is recommended.

NGC 7000 - North American Nebula - Cygnus - Mag 4, Binoculars

This nebula covers an area 4 times the size of the moon, but that also means, it's brightness is stretched over it, making naked eye observation near impossible. Binoculars are needed to view this, just near the brightest star Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus.

NGC 1499 - California Nebula - Perseus - Mag 5 - Binoculars/Small Telescope

Even with binoculars this can be quite a challenge to see, and best viewed from very dark environments or smaller telescopes. As with the North American nebula, the size covered in the sky is responsible for making it harder to see.

M8 - Lagoon Nebula - Sagittarius - Mag 5 - Binoculars

Another recent feature in my blog, the Lagoon Nebula is just about visible with the naked eye under the right conditions, but in cities, best viewed by binoculars. The nebula being in Sagittarius is falls over the central bulge of the Milky Way, although it is 4,000 light years from us, the background of stars are 20,000 light years off.

Source : https://telescopius.com/deep-sky/search