A few more winter objects
• M16, the Eagle Nebula. And yet another naked eye nebula! This is the home of the Eagle, also known as the Pillars of Creation. This structure is made up of a small group of dark pillars, that point towards the small and young, brilliant cluster of stars that is causing the nebula to glow. Deep within these pillars are dozens of protostars, stars that are not quite finished forming so their nuclear fires haven’t started, but their strong gravitational pull keeps the cocoon of gas and dust that they are forming from around them, and resisting the erosive power of the radiation emitted by the young cluster. The Eagle, or Pillars of creation, are very difficult to see, requiring larger apertures and a dark & very transparent sky.
• NGC 7009, the Saturn Nebula, in Aquarius. This is a small but bright planetary nebula that through a telescope resembles the planet Saturn.
• NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula, in Aquarius. Another planetary nebula, but this one is large, and one of the closest planetary nebulae to us. This large puff of smoke appears to have a couple of rings that make up its helix or corkscrew structure. The Helix is some 650 light years from us, in astronomical terms it is right next door to us, and its diameter is an eye watering 2.5 light year!
The Dinosaur Killers.
• NGC 7552, 7582, 7590 & 7599, the Grus Quartet, in Grus. This is a small, faint quartet of interacting galaxies whose gravitation pull on each other is causing them to distort. This is only the first part of their speciality. What REALLY sets them apart from is their distance – 65 million light years. So when you look at this quartet of stars with your own eyes through a scope, you are reaching back into time to when the dinosaurs where wiped off the face of Earth! Those photons from those galaxies have been travelling through space for 65million years, and have cause cells in the back of your eye to fire. Photons that are all your own and no one else’s that are 65 million years old. Pretty amazing I reckon. Being so far away, these four galaxies are very faint, and do require some aperture grunt to spot them. Have a go all the same – to catch a glimpse of these distant worlds is well worth the effort. Three of the the galaxies are very close to each other, the forth is a little way of, so this group is also sometimes called the Grus Trio.
I think there’s plenty here to get you going over winter. As always, if you have any questions or would like suggestions for further objects, just ask
Alex.