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Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
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If you're like me, you have probably seen Jupiter, Saturn, the Orion Nebula, and all of the sky's showpiece objects more times than you can count. And while they are truly spectacular and well worth revisiting, you may be looking for something new, something challenging to observe.
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Cosmic Challenge 61 Cygni: Piazzi's Flying Star
Sep 01 2017 09:48 AM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
The star 61 Cygni is not bright, nor is it visually distinctive. To the eye alone, it looks just like any other 5th-magnitude point of light deep in the Milky Way flowing through the Swan. But looks can be deceiving! This unremarkable looking star is indeed quite remarkable for its unusually high rate of proper motion. By watching and plotting it against the backdrop of stars over the course of relatively few years, its position shifts at an extraordinarily fast pace. At present, 61 Cyg has a proper motion of more than 5 arc-seconds per year.
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Cosmic Challenge: Shadow Bands
Aug 03 2017 10:35 AM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
Enthusiasts think nothing of jetting around the world just to witness the few brief moments of a total solar eclipse. And with good reason, for all who behold the majesty of totality will give impassioned testimony to its unbridled glory. A total solar eclipse is the most beautiful and emotionally charged celestial event of all.
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Cosmic Challenge: M13's propeller
Jul 01 2017 09:33 AM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
In last month's column, we paid a visit to the Moon and the crater pair of Messier and Messier A. This month, we head back out into deep space to examine one of the most spectacular entries in Charles Messier's catalog: M13, the Great Hercules Globular Cluster.
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Cosmic Challenge: Lunar Craters Messier and Messier A
May 31 2017 01:20 PM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
Summer is in the offing here in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest day of the year is at hand. While many of us enjoy the warmer weather, the dark of night comes late in the evening and leaves all too early the following morning. So while deep-sky observing is limited, we can still enjoy viewing our Moon even if the sky is still bright. Yes, observing challenges await us on our nearest neighbor in space.
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Cosmic Challenge: The Antennae
May 01 2017 12:45 PM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
Seven decades ago, while scanning a Palomar Sky Survey plate of the area around brilliant Regulus in Leo the Lion, astronomers Robert Harrington (no relation) and A.G. Wilson noticed a faint blur of light just 1/2° north of the star. They may have thought at first that the glow was just an internal lens flare caused by stray starlight, but it soon became apparent that they had discovered something very real.
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Cosmic Challenge: Leo I
Apr 01 2017 11:21 AM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
Seven decades ago, while scanning a Palomar Sky Survey plate of the area around brilliant Regulus in Leo the Lion, astronomers Robert Harrington (no relation) and A.G. Wilson noticed a faint blur of light just 1/2° north of the star. They may have thought at first that the glow was just an internal lens flare caused by stray starlight, but it soon became apparent that they had discovered something very real.
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Cosmic Challenge: Jonckheere 900
Mar 04 2017 08:03 AM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
Few amateur astronomers are familiar with the name Robert Jonckheere. Jonckheere was a French double-star observer who conducted research at a number of observatories over his six-decade career, including the Strasbourg Observatory in France, the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England, as well as McDonald Observatory in Texas.
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Cosmic Challenge: A Case of Mistaken Identity
Feb 04 2017 07:53 AM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
There once was a mystery in Lynx. The story opened in 1790 when William Herschel discovered a small, nebulous glow about 2½° northwest of 27 Lyncis. He later added it as number 830 in his list of "very faint nebulae" (abbreviated H-III-830) and apparently moved on without noticing a second, fainter blur of light just to the northeast. That second object was discovered 66 years later by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, through his 72-inch "Leviathan" reflector. Both were later incorporated into John Dreyer's New General Catalog. NGC 2474 is described as "faint, pretty small, extended?, brighter middle, very small star?, large star north following." NGC 2475 is simply noted as "makes a double nebula with" NGC 2474.
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Cosmic Challenge: Barnard's Loop
Dec 31 2016 08:20 AM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
One of the greatest naked-eye challenges goading amateur astronomers around the world is trying to spot the elusive arc of nebulosity known as Barnard's Loop. Cataloged officially as Sharpless 2-276, Barnard's Loop is a ghostly, 10°-wide semicircular bow of nebulosity that wraps around the eastern side of Orion, the Hunter. In long exposure photographs, it bears the unmistakable resemblance to portions of the Veil Nebula supernova remnant in Cygnus. Spotting it by eye stands as a monumental test for observers.
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Cosmic Challenge: Globular Clusters in the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy
Dec 03 2016 07:13 AM |
PhilH
in Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge
Let's begin this challenge with a riddle. What's big and round, close at hand, and yet nearly impossible to see? If you answered "the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy," then you are correct! The Fornax Dwarf, a dwarf spheroidal system, covers a 17'x13' area of our late autumn sky and lies about 530,000 light years from the Milky Way. That's well within the confines of our Local Group of galaxies. And with a magnitude rating of 9.3, it sounds like it should be bright and easy to see. But when we look its way, it's not there. Even the best photos manage to record only an incredibly dim, elliptical haze peppered by some 19th-magnitude stars!
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