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
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
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
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