DOUBLES, ANYONE? open cluster m34 is one big, bright puddle
of pairs. the dozen duos aren’t all officially recognized—indeed, most
of them are simply eye-catching couples in chance alignments. a few
others are close binaries. how many can you see with your scope?
PHOTO BY GARY SERONIK
N
o, doUbles ClUster isn’t a misspelling of double
Cluster, the name given to the acclaimed side-by-side
objects in the perseus Milky way (see page 27). I’m
referring, instead, to M34in the same constellation. Although not
a showpiece, M34 features an amazing variety of double stars—
some easy, some not!
to reach M34, start at Mirfak, perseus’s second-magnitude
lucida, head south-southwestward nearly 10 degrees to the famous
variable star Algol, which shines at magnitude 2.1 most of the time
but occasionally dips to magnitude 3.4. From Algol, go westward
five degrees to fifth-magnitude 12 Persei. then it’s only a 2½-
degree sweep northward to our celestial prize.
the half-degree-wide cluster glows at magnitude 5.2. however,
with the exception of a solitary 7.3-magnitude star on its southeast-
ern periphery, every member of M34 is dimmer than magnitude
8.0. In my 4¼-inch f/6 reflector at 22×, I observe a sparse scatter of
two dozen stars. It would be a mistake, though, to dismiss M34 on
the basis of a low-magnification peek.
even at 22×, I can spot three wide pairings (labelled 1, 2 and
3 in the chart and table on the facing page) and much tighter
herschel 1123 (set 4) shining near the centre of M34. Increasing
to 50×delivers four fainter combos—sets 5, 6, 7 and 8, the latter
two being the widest in the bunch. these eight tandems are easy
catches in any scope using medium power.SCOPING THE SKY by ken hewitt-white
perSeuSm5° inderscope
ield of view12mirfakalgol
STARRY PATCH IN PERSEUS
the star-hop to open star cluster m
includes mirfak, algol and 12 persei.
CHARTS BY GLENN LEDREWCASSIOPEIAANDROMEDA MTRIANGULUMPE
RSEUSDoubl
eusterlC18 SKYNEWS •NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
a deep-Sky double take
e ‘doubles Cluster’ in perseus looks great in any backyard telescope