October Targets

These are deep sky targets seen from Caltech 9-11PM Local in October.

Object	Alternative Names	Type	Brightness	Surface Brightness	Size	Suggested Telescope/Eyepiece	Notes	Links for More Information
M13	NGC6205, Hercules Cluster	Globular Cluster	5.8	11.0	20'	>= 10"	Appears as a faint white cloud, can resolve some stars: 300,000 stars, 11.6 Gyr old, 22 klyr away; the Arecibo Message, one of the first attempts at communicating with extraterrestrials was beamed at M13	Astropixels SEDS Wikipedia
Ring Nebula	M57	Planetary Nebula	8.8	10.9	230"	>= 10"	Appears as a faintly colored ring, small.	Astropixels SEDS Wikipedia
Albireo		Double Star	0.33	-	35" apart	>= 6"	High constrast binary with one star red, one star blue. Good excuse to talk about stellar types and colors and evolution.	EarthSky Wikipedia
Double Cluster	NGC869 + NGC884 Caldwell 14	Open Cluster	3.8	10.9	60'	>= 10"	Two bright, resolved star clusters side by side. Need wide FOV. Both are young clusters, 7 klyr away, ~14 Myr old, containing luminous B stars	Astropixels SEDS Wikipedia
Andromeda Galaxy	M31	Spiral galaxy	3.4	13.4	178'x63'	>= 10"	Can only see core in telescope, appears as faint, white cloud. 2.5 Mlyr distant. Similar in mass and luminosity to Milky Way. Moving toward us at 70miles/s; Collision expected in 2.5 Gyr	Astropixels SEDS Wikipedia
Pleiades	M45, Subaru	open cluster	1.6	11.1	110'	>= 8" with 32mm+ eyepiece	100 Myr-old star cluster, 440 lyr away, containing ~500 members total.	Astropixels SEDS Wikipedia
Owl Cluster	NGC457, Dragonfly Cluster, ET Cluster	Open Cluster	6.4	12.6	13'	>= 8"	10 klyr distant cluster shaped like a bird with wings, with two bright stars for eyes. Brightest of "eyes" is foreground star, dimmer is a cluster member	Starchart Wikipedia

Topic revision: r1 - 2016-07-04 - OutreachAdmin