Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see the Kite, globular cluster M53, and the Hockey Stick Galaxy this week.
Check out the Astronomy.com's interactive star chart — StarDome — 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 sweet spring treat
This week’s naked-eye object is a northern-sky springtime asterism many amateur astronomers call the Kite. An asterism is a recognizable pattern of stars that’s not one of the “official” 88 constellations. The Big Dipper is an asterism. So is Orion’s belt.
Now, while many people see a kite in this part of the sky, I see an ice cream cone. The cone is made of six stars in the constellation Boötes the Herdsman. Let’s start with the easiest to find — Arcturus (Alpha [α] Boötis) — the night sky’s fourth-brightest star.
Finding Arcturus is easy. First find the Big Dipper. Then follow the curve of the Dipper’s handle until you encounter a bright orange star. That’s Arcturus, and it’s the bottom of the ice cream cone.
The thin sugar-cone tips slightly to the north-northeast, so from Arcturus, head up to Epsilon (ε) and Delta (δ) Boötis to make the cone’s left side, and Rho (ρ) and Gamma (γ) Boötis for the right. Beta (β) Boötis marks the top of the scoop of ice cream.
This used to be a two-scoop cone. Boötes, however, lies near its highest point in the sky during the hottest days of summer. So, sometime long ago, the second scoop melted, slipped off, and now lies just to the east of the cone — as the constellation Corona Borealis.
A globe of Suns
This week’s small telescope target is globular cluster M53 in the constellation Coma Berenices. To find it, look a little less than 1° northeast of Coma Berenices’ brightest star. That’s magnitude 4.3 Diadem (Alpha [α] Comae Berenices).
M53 sits 60,000 light-years from both the Sun and the Milky Way’s center. It lies in our galaxy’s halo region. Through a 4-inch scope under a dark sky, you’ll see several dozen faint stars. Many stars concentrate in the wide core of this cluster. Few field stars lie around M53, so you’ll have no trouble defining where the cluster’s stars end.
In the same low-power telescopic field as M53 is one of the Milky Way’s least concentrated globular clusters, NGC 5053. Its brightest stars barely top magnitude 14, so, although you can spot the cluster through a small scope, you’ll need an 8-inch telescope to resolve its stars as individual points. This unusual globular looks like an open cluster. It has only a few dozen widely spaced stars strewn across its width. Look closely and see if you can pick out its roughly triangular shape.
He shoots. He scores!
This week’s deep-sky object is the Hockey Stick Galaxy (NGC 4656) in the constellation Canes Venatici.
Not many bright stars lie nearby, so you’ll need to head 6.6° south-southwest of magnitude 3.0 Cor Caroli. That’s the Alpha [α] star in Canes Venatici.
English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered this galaxy in 1787. The core is the brightest part of the galaxy, followed by the blade, which lies to the northeast. NGC 4656’s disk widens and gets fainter toward the southwest.
As you view this unusual galaxy, it’s interesting to note that astronomers gave the stick and the bright knot in the blade separate NGC numbers. The long stick is NGC 4656, while the knot is NGC 4657.
Because you’re already in the area, you owe it to yourself to take a look 0.5° northwest of the Hockey Stick Galaxy. There you’ll find the magnitude 9.0 Whale Galaxy (NGC 4631).
Gravitational interaction between these two objects is what tore the Hockey Stick Galaxy apart and gave it its unusual appearance.
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Previous episode: The Spring Triangle, the Mini Coathanger, and irregular galaxy NGC 4449