Big, Bold, Bright, Beautiful
66 JANUARY 2020 • SKY & TELESCOPE
nicknames the Owl, the E.T., the Kachina Doll, and several
others. Whatever you call it, you won’t forget this one.
Moving back to the south of the Alpha Persei Cluster,
look for NGC 1342, a loose, coarse, bright (magnitude 6.7)
open cluster of about 60 stars elongated in an east-west
orientation. I call this one the “Chipmunk Cluster” for rea-
sons that will be obvious when you see it. It looks just like a
chipmunk scampering out of the Milky Way right into your
telescope. I’m sure this cluster is guaranteed to put a smile
on your face, too. It’s about ¼° across, so it looks good at
low to medium power.
Farther to the west lies Almach, Gamma (γ) Andromedae.
Almach is one of the prettiest doubles in the sky. It’s a mini-
Albireo, with a bright gold primary and a somewhat dimmer,
bluer companion. Almach’s two components’ magnitudes are
similar enough (2.3 and 5.0) and they’re separated by enough
distance (about 10′′) that they’re an easy split in almost any
telescope. The colors are vivid enough to stand out under any
conditions, even bad city skyglow.
Just 5° south of Almach lies a little-observed but quite
nice open cluster, NGC 752. Also known as Caldwell 28, this
is a bright, sparse, and very large open cluster more than 1°
across. It’s probably best in binoculars, but it’s fun to cruise
around in with a telescope to look at its many star chains,
mini-clusters within the larger cluster, and doubles.
If you’re going through these objects in order, things
have moved a ways to the west now, and a few more gems
are rising high enough in the southeast to enjoy. Let’s drop
all the way back down toward Orion, but skip off to the left
of Canis Major, just above the rump of the dog, to NGC
2362. This is the Tau Canis Majoris Cluster, so named for
the single bright star, Tau (τ) Canis Majoris, that dominates
all the rest. Tau is assumed to be a true cluster star, which,457(^1342752)
Cr 39
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CAMELOPARDALIS
CASSIOPEIA
PERSEUS
TRI
ANDROMEDA
4 h 3 h 2 h 1 h+40°+50°Starmagnitudes
213
4
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6qLARGE CLUSTER The Alpha Persei
Cluster is one of the closest and largest open
clusters in the sky. This is too big for a tele-
scope; enjoy it by naked eye. FOV=9°qBRIGHT STAR AMONG MANY JEWELS
NGC 2362 is dominated by Tau Canis Majoris,
a star possibly more than 100,000 times
brighter than the Sun. FOV=20′NN