This month's
star chart start shows the western sky at 9:00 PM. Saturn is low
in the sky. The rings are well situated, but the planet is too low
to provide a good view because we are looking through so much af the earth's
atmosphere.
The Crab Nebula,
M1, is well placed in the west about 55 deg above the horizon. Murray's
scope offers a good view of the Crab, so called because the nebula has
a number of filaments that are said to resemble the legs of a crab.
This was the first fuzzy object that comet hunter Charles Messier catalogued
in 1758 so he and others would not mistake the nebula for a comet.
In fact, the Crab is the remnant of a supernova that was first observed
by the Chinese on July 4, 1054 AD. The explosion, of course, actually
occurred about 6,300 years earlier because the Crab is about 6,300 light
years away. At about 9th magnitude, the Crab is not visible to the
naked eye.
The Double Cluster,
between the head of Perseus (he's upside down) and Cassiopeia, is a naked
eye or binocular object under a good sky. These two open clusters
are about 25 deg above the NW horizon. They are about 8,000 light
years away.
You can print a copy of this star
chart so you can take it outside.
