Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see constellation Lepus, the Crab Nebula, and the Raspberry Nebula .
Check out the Astronomy.com's interactive star chart to see an accurate map of your sky. It'll help you locate some of this week's key targets. Astronomy magazine subscribers have access to a slew of cool functions with StarDome PLUS.
Each week, I highlight three different night-sky targets for you to see:
- One object you can find with your naked eyes or through binoculars
- One object to find with a small telescope
- One deep-sky object to find with an 8-inch or larger telescope for you avid astronomers
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A rabbit underfoot
This week’s naked-eye object is the small constellation Lepus the Hare. In the sky, Lepus sits directly below (that is, south of) Orion. It’s a mid-sized constellation. Out of the 88 star patterns that cover the sky, Lepus ranks 51st in size. It covers 290 square degrees, or about 0.7 percent of the sky.
Lepus has two named stars, magnitude 2.6 Arneb (α Leporis) and magnitude 2.9 Nihal (β Leporis). No meteor showers originate from this constellation.
Lepus is completely visible from any latitude south of 63° north, and completely invisible only from latitudes north of 79° north. The best date to see it (when it lies opposite the Sun in the sky as seen from Earth) is December 14. Conversely, don’t look for it around June 15, because that’s when the Sun is in Lepus’ part of the sky.
Boom goes the star!
This week’s small telescope target is the Crab Nebula (M1) in Taurus. Although the word “nebula” is part of this object’s name, astronomers classify it as a supernova remnant.
In 1054, a brilliant new star 4 times brighter than Venus appeared near Taurus the Bull’s southern horn. For more than 3 weeks it remained visible during daylight hours, and it took more than a year to fade from view.
William Parsons, Third Earl of Rosse, sketched M1 in 1844 through his giant reflecting telescope. Other astronomers noted the object’s crablike appearance and gave M1 its common name.
This supernova remnant has a high surface brightness, so even a 3-inch telescope (and even some binoculars) will reveal it. The object shines at magnitude 8.0. The Crab Nebula has an oval shape. It measures 6' by 4' and orients northwest to southeast.
The easiest way to find the Crab Nebula is to start at the 4th-magnitude bluish star Zeta (ζ) Tauri. From there, move 1° to the northwest.
A rosy planetary
This week’s deep-sky object is the Raspberry Nebula (IC 418) in Lepus. It’s a small planetary, measuring only 12" across. It glows at magnitude 9.3. Much of this brightness comes from the magnitude 10.2 central star that sits within the nebulous disk.
Amateur astronomers who viewed this object through large telescopes dubbed it the Raspberry Nebula because of the pale reddish color they saw. Don’t expect to see this color through any telescope with an aperture smaller than about 12 inches. That being said, some observers have noted a faint red when they observed IC 418 at magnifications too low to reveal its disk.
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Previous episode: Castor and Pollux, the 9-12 Geminorum Cluster, and the Eskimo Nebula
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