The Pleiades and Hyades clusters
Wednesday, 9. September 2009, 22:14:44
Here's two star clusters you can fit nicely in one photo.
I posted previously about the Pleiades(M45) and here it is again, such a good cluster for the binoculars and quite easy to find, in Taurus, just below Perseus(or above if your in the southern hemisphere, where the sky goes round the wrong way and all is upside down)
Taurus is not that full of exotic galaxies and nebulae, but does contain the Pleiades(which does have some nebulousity) and the open cluster Hyades. If you can find Aldebaran then your looking at the Hyades cluster, which is quite an old cluster at 625 million years old. Although it looks like Aldebaran is part of the cluster it is actually much closer than the cluster, Aldebaran being about 65 light years away and the cluster being about 150 light years away.
Aldebaran is a big old star who has swollen to nearly 45 times larger than our sun and is just burning off helium now, I imagine our sun will be like this some day. An easy star to find as it roughly in line with Orion's belt, to Orion's left(right of him to northerners, left of him for southerners, where Orion stands on his head). Nasa's Pioneer 10 craft, which flew by Jupiter the year I was born, is heading out of the solar system now and is heading for Aldebaran.
The Hyades cluster is the nearest cluster to us, but moving away from us. Due to its age it has no nebulousity and no blue giants. It does contain the triple star system Delta Tauri, Rho Tauri is a Delta Scuti variable star, Theta Tauri is a double of which one is a Delta Scuti variable. There are also more doubles and multiple star systems in the cluster and probably planets too. I guess that's to be expected though, that's the sort of thing you get in space.
(10%)
WIDGETIZE
Ivan # 10. September 2009, 15:10
sean brechin # 10. September 2009, 15:20
Ivan # 10. September 2009, 15:42
sean brechin # 10. September 2009, 15:59
I'd like to make a Newtonian. Not difficult to make if you can get a good mirror.
Ivan # 10. September 2009, 16:15
May be you can make it from special zoom-mirror(I know that they were sold in countries of CIS, two-sides mirrors with normal mirror on one side and zoom on another)
sean brechin # 10. September 2009, 17:06
I think I'll leave mirror making to the professionals, you can buy them easily enough and very high quality. I can make the rest no problem. http://www.oldham-optical.co.uk/ this site is highly recommended, although not cheap.
Not sure about zoom mirrors, I guess you would need to work out the focal length.
Adele # 11. September 2009, 20:49
I have been to the southern hemisphere, but only as a 13 year old who didn't know much about constellations. Nowadays I'd definitely get a little bothered by the sight of Orion upside down
sean brechin # 11. September 2009, 22:46
The sad thing is, most folk i mention these simple astronomical facts to don't understand it and hence must not really know what is going on on their own planet and the space around them. It wont stop me trying to enlighten them though. I guess i just want everyone to appreciate the the space they live in, from the smallest quantum thingy to the biggest omniversal thingy.
It's good to find people like yourself that understand what i mean when i say "Orion will be standing on his head"
Adele # 12. September 2009, 06:52