Abstract
We now begin to look at those constellations that ride high in the sky for northern observers, but may be rather low, or even unobservable, for southern observers. In fact, several of the constellations are circumpolar for northern observers, meaning you could observe them on any night of the year, in theory. Of course, there will be times when they are very low in the sky, and so atmospheric extinction will hinder your view, but this means that you can observe parts of the Milky Way on any clear night of the entire year. Let’s begin looking at our collection of autumn Milky Way constellations (see Complete Star Chart 3.1).
See Appendix 1 for details on astronomical coordinate systems.
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Notes
- 1.
Bright when it is seen in a telescope of aperture 20 cm and greater!.
- 2.
Research suggetsts that Alphs (a) Persei is a “runaway star ” that was ejected from the cluster NGC 1502 .
- 3.
It always makes me wonder who catalogues these objects and decides when a group of stars is a cluster or just a pleasing arrangement.
- 4.
An added bonus is that the cluster is circumpolar for most northern latitudes. Observe it every night of the year if you want (and if it’s clear!).
- 5.
See Observer’s Guide To Star Clusters by the current author. It has over 20 clusters for Cassiopeia, and incidentally, covers most clusters in all 88 constellations.
- 6.
It was once thought to be a Syfert galaxy – an active galaxy. That idea however, is now in dispute.
- 7.
By bright I mean bright as seen in a large telescope.
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Inglis, M. (2017). The Milky Way: September – October. In: Astronomy of the Milky Way. The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49082-3_3
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