Gemini, Lynx, and Canis Minor - Downloadable article
Don your warm woolies, the deep-sky splendors of the winter Milky Way await.
By
Tom Polakis —
Published:
March 3, 2009This downloadable article is from an Astronomy magazine 45-article series called "Celestial Portraits." The collection highlights all 88 constellations in the sky and explains how to observe each constellation's deep-sky targets. The articles feature star charts, stunning pictures, and constellation mythology. We've put together 11 digital packages. Each one contains four Celestial Portraits articles for you to purchase and download.
"Gemini, Lynx, and Canis Major" is one of four articles included in Portraits Package 2.
The bright winter constellations ride high in the February sky for observers at northern latitudes. Gemini the Twins is a Milky Way constellation filled with clusters and nebulae. North of Gemini is Lynx the Bobcat while diminutive Canis Minor the Small Dog lies to the south.
Our first stop, the open cluster M35 (NGC 2168), is some 2,800 light-years away. This spectacular cluster holds dozens of stars brighter than 10th magnitude, most in the central 20' where the field is peppered with more than 150 stars. A few stragglers extend to 1°. A string of brighter stars toward the center is easily identified by its saxophone-like shape roughly 10' long. To read the complete article, purchase and download Portraits Package 2. |
Deep-sky objects in Gemini, Lynx, and Canis Major
NGC 2158, M35, J900, NGC 2371/2, Abell 21 (Medusa Nebula), NGC 2392 (Eskimo Nebula), Castor, NGC 2419 ("Intergalactic Wanderer"), NGC 2420, Procyon, U Gem, JE 1, NGC 2537, NGC 2683, NGC 2832 |
Package 2 contains the following Celestial Portraits articles
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