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In this episode of Star Hopping with Kissimmee Park Observatory, we'll look at the Taurus
region, and show you how to find these beautiful deep sky objects:
The Pleiades The Crab Nebula
And the Open Cluster Messier 37
Alright, Let's Go Star Hopping!
Hey Hello Hi and welcome to Episode 4 of Star Hopping with Kissimmee Park Observatory! I'm
Dave Hearn, and I'll be your host. In this series of programs we'll show you the most
beautiful sights in the night sky, and explain exactly how to find them with your binoculars
or telescope.
In this episode we'll be looking at the region of the sky containing the constellations of
Taurus and Auriga, another area that's thick with deep sky objects. This is because of
the close proximity of the Milky Way, which runs right through Auriga. We also have two
of the brightest stars in the sky in each of these constellations, with orange Aldebaran
in Taurus, sometimes called The Eye of the Bull, and the even brighter Capella in Auriga.
You can't miss either of these beacons as they rise in the eastern sky around 10:30
PM in late October and early November.
Capella is the sixth brightest star in the sky, where Aldebaran comes in at number 14
on the brightest stars list. Astronomers have a measurement that they use to quantify the
brightness of stars, called the Magnitude scale. Oddly, this scale runs backwards, with
brighter stars having lower magnitude numbers. The very brightest objects in the sky have
magnitudes that are actually negative numbers. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is
magnitude -1.6. Vega, in the constellation of Lyra, that we discussed in the last episode,
is magnitude 0. Capella is also a magnitude 0 star. Aldebaran is a bit fainter at magnitude
0.8.
In the city, light pollution limits visibility to about third magnitude stars, but under
very dark skies you can see stars down to about 6th magnitude, and these number in the
thousands. So there are many, many more faint stars in the sky than bright ones, and even
more than that are too faint to be seen with the naked eye.
So we'll start our star hops for this episode with an easy one; we're going to locate The
Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters. The Pleiades appear in the famous Messier
List in position number 45 and is the brightest object on the list. This amazing open cluster
is easily seen with the naked eye in a dark sky, and it has the shape of a dipper. But
it's not the Big Dipper or even the Little Dipper, which are the constellations of Ursa
Major and Ursa Minor, respectively.
Finding M45 is not much of a Star Hop, as it's so bright you can pretty much find it
immediately! You'll see the orangey Aldebaran about 25 degrees up, in the eastern sky. With
your binoculars or even just your eyes, look about 15 degrees up and slightly to the left,
and you'll find this spectacular group of stars and nebula.
The stars contained in The Pleiades are hot blue stars, and their light bounces off a
reflection nebula behind then, which gives them a misty, shrouded look in astrophotos
like this one taken at KPO. Most of the stars in the cluster are bright enough to have their
own names. Pleione and Atlas are the little ones in the handle. Next is Alcyone which
is the brightest one in the whole cluster. Merope is down and to the right, with a lot
of reflection nebula around it, and the front of the dipper bowl is formed by Electra, Celaeno,
Taygeta, Sterope, Asterope, and Maia. These stars are named after the Seven Sisters, daughters
of the Greek gods Atlas and Pleione, which are also present in the cluster. Again, M45
is the brightest object on the Messier List, with all the stars and nebula within it shining
collectively at magnitude 1.5.
Moving on to our next target, well locate the much fainter Crab Nebula in Taurus, otherwise
known as M1, the first object that Charles Messier added to his list of things that weren't
comets!
The Crab is a supernova remnant, the remains of the largest type of explosion in space,
when a supermassive star collapses upon itself and explodes, flinging its stellar material
into the surrounding space. In the case of the Crab, the leftover nebula is the wreckage
of a stellar explosion that occurred centuries ago, first noted by Chinese astronomers in
the year 1054. According to the Chinese records, it reached a peak magnitude of -6, which is
four times brighter than Venus at its brightest, and it was visible in the daylight for 23
days straight. Imagine seeing a bright star in the sky during daylight! That must have
been amazing.
So let's start our Star Hop, and for this one you will definitely need a telescope.
Starting on the bright star Aldebaran, let's move down and to the left about 8 degrees,
to M Tauri, which is a double star with the two component stars being about 5th magnitude.
Continue moving the same direction, about the same distance again, about 8 degrees,
and you'll find Zeta Tauri, another double star with components stars of 3rd and 5th
magnitude. This is a great way to see the relative brightness of the stars, similar
to what we discussed earlier. Zeta has a ridiculous ancient Babylonian name, let's see if I can
pronounce it: "Shurnar kab ti-sha-shutu". Say that 5 times fast.
So, arriving at Zeta, we are only a little over a degree away from the Crab, but the
only star we can hop to is about 7th magnitude. At a right angle to the direction we have
been moving, look about a degree away, and you'll see the star. Take a few seconds to
judge the brightness of this star, as the Crab is slightly fainter. So, now for the
last movement. Move about a half degree up and slightly to the right, and you should
find the faint fuzzy that is the Crab Nebula, which softly glows at magnitude 8.4.
A great way to glimpse faint objects like this one in the telescope is to use a method
called "Averted Vision". This is done be centering the object in the eyepiece, then looking to
the extreme left of the field of view, but mentally paying attention to the center. It
will seem that the object will brighten a bit, and you may be able to discern some additional
details. The reason why this works is because the center of our eyes are essentially burned
in by the bright light we see during the day. The outside of the retina is not so brightly
lit on a regular basis, so it is a bit more sensitive. This works great on extended faint
objects like galaxies and planetary nebulae. Try this with the Crab and see if it works
for you.
Alrighty Then. Our next and final target for this episode, is the open Star Cluster M37
in the constellation of Auriga. Auriga has several bright clusters within it, M36, M37,
and M38, but 37 is the richest, meaning it has the most stars in it.
To find M37, we will start at the 0 magnitude star Capella that we discussed earlier. Move
a little over 8 degrees down to Menkalinan, a bright star of magnitude 1.8. Next, we'll
move at a little greater than a right angle about the same distance to Theta Aurigae,
at magnitude 2.7. So Leap of Faith time again - no bright stars between us and M37, so move
about 5 degrees to the right, (PAUSE) then slightly down, and you should see M37 moving
into view. M37 consists of about 150 brighter stars, and shines at magnitude 5.6.
So those are our three objects for this episode: The Pleiades; M45, The Crab Nebula; M1, and
the open cluster M37. Also, we learned about measuring star brightness with the Magnitude
scale, and also discussed how to glimpse fainter objects in the eyepiece by using the Averted
Vision method.
Trailer
I hope you've enjoyed star hopping around the Milky Way. We're continue to bring you
these astronomy tutorials to you every couple of weeks, and if we get inspired, sometimes
more often. They will be designed to help you find deep sky objects that are up in the
sky at the time we post them to YouTube.
If you found this video useful, please consider subscribing to our channel by clicking the
big yellow button down there, and click the Thumbs Up, and please share it out to your
friends who like looking at stars. The more the merrier! Also, as I just mentioned, please
feel free to leave any question or comment below, and we'll be sure to respond quickly.
Also, please follow KPO on Facebook, where we post all of our astrophotos and keep everyone
informed about upcoming astronomical events. We'd love to hear from you to discuss all
this great stuff up in the sky.
All the links to these places including our website kpobservatory.org, can be found below
in the Episode Notes as well.
And finally, if you feel this video provides you value, and if you'd like to see more,
please consider supporting us on Patreon, where for a couple dollars per video, you
can support our efforts and let us make even more great astronomy tutorials like this one.
Well thanks again for watching, and we'll see you next time on Star Hopping with Kissimmee
Park Observatory.