Cepheus and Beyond

2 October 2019, 21:30 – 00:15 BST

Cold, breezy; patchy cloud moving from west.

NGC 7510, open cluster, Cepheus
Viewed at 92x (Ethos 13mm) – rich, condensed little cluster. Brightest stars form outline of fang or dagger, with fainter spray of stars alongside. This cluster resides in a particularly rich part of the Milky Way. While sweeping the area I stumbled across a small, crescent-shaped cluster roughly southeast of 7510, later confirmed as Markarian 50. It stood out despite the richness of the surrounding star-fields, so I’m surprised it didn’t make the NGC catalogue.

NGC 7762, open cluster, Cepheus
Faint, misty patch of stars north of bright star, shaped like an hourglass or bow tie.

Delta Cephei
Beautiful wide double. White primary, blue secondary to south. The prototype Cepheid variable.

NGC 7380, open cluster, Cepheus
Triangular cluster of stars, no obvious nebulosity.

Trumpler 37, open cluster, Cepheus
Cluster surrounded by IC 1396 emission nebula (not visible). Large sprawling star field; prominent triple star near centre, double star nearby (roughly between triple star and Mu Cephei).

NGC 752, open cluster, Andromeda
Large, rich cluster with lots of bright stars. Fills field of view of Ethos.

M33, Triangulum Galaxy
Well framed in the Ethos, and quite a good view despite average transparency. Could almost describe it as “bright”, particularly the core region. NGC 604 was obvious even at 92x. Spiral arms seemed mottled with averted vision. Suggestion of dark patches immediately S and SE of nucleus.

NGC 1528, open cluster, Perseus
Very rich cluster, about 0.5 degree across. Stars arranged in loose arms spiralling out from centre.

NGC 1513, open cluster, Perseus 
Smaller, fainter cluster with winding line of stars in reverse s-shape or shape of number “2”.

I then crossed over into Camelopardalis to look for galaxy IC 342, but I couldn’t see it even though I was pretty sure I was looking in the right place. This didn’t come as a complete surprise. I think with higher elevation and better transparency I should at least be able to spot it. Failing that, it’s in a good place for imaging.

NGC 7331, spiral galaxy, Pegasus
I probably wasted too much time trying to find IC 342, so by the time I got to this galaxy it had already slipped past the meridian. At 240x the core region showed up well, with a sharp cut-off corresponding to the dust lane. Even with the close-up finder chart I couldn’t be sure of seeing the neighbouring galaxies (the “fleas”).

Stephan’s Quintet, galaxy grouping in Pegasus
Using the finder chart I carefully navigated SW from 7331 to the correct area (still at 240x). With averted vision I could just about see 2 small galaxies right on the threshold of visibility, apparently corresponding to NGC 7318 A/B and NGC 7320. Very difficult – I need to try this again on a better night to be sure of what I was seeing.

Uranus 
Tough to find without any naked-eye stars nearby, but eventually tracked it down in the Ethos. Presented as a bright little green-grey disc, clearly non-stellar. Well resolved at 240x and 333x, and when the seeing occasionally “snapped” into place it looked quite eerie: a tiny little globe suspended in the depths of space. No additional detail seen other than perhaps some limb-darkening.

M45, Pleiades, Taurus
Attractive sight at 92x, but obviously still too large for the field of view. The reflection nebula is especially prominent at this magnification – it almost looks like condensation has fogged up the optics. Nebulosity brightest around Merope, but couldn’t see any structure to it.

Other notes
1 slow meteor some time around midnight, travelling from the zenith towards the western horizon. A possible early Orionid?