http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 534.4-magnitude star Zeta (ζ) Mono-
cerotis. As viewed through his small
refractor, Kevin Berwick considers M48
an impressive group, and he reports,
“There are quite a lot of bright stars
in this cluster and a strong grouping
towards the centre, although not
globular-like. There’s a tight V of stars
at the centre of the cluster.” Magda
Streicher, an accomplished observer
and astronomy author from South
Africa, described the view through her
30-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain at 95×. She
notes, “Caroline [Herschel] and Messier
independently discovered this large,
bright, and loosely expanded cluster
displaying circles, pairs, and triplets. A
prominent, uneven string of stars runs
through the cluster in a north to south
direction.” Through a small scope at
50 ×, M48 spans 30′ and boasts about 60
stars, 8th magnitude and fainter.
Now we’ll sweep over to the
3.9-magnitude, yellow-orange star Iota
(ι) Hydrae and then drop 1.7° south to
4.5′ planetary nebula Abell 33. With his
75-cm scope at 187×, Steve Amerongen
saw Abell 33 as an “oblong patch of
nebulosity; it’s slightly darker in the
middle; very slight uneven surface
brightness and mottling are visible in
the disk; it has ill-defined/soft edges; the
central star is easily visible; the nebula’s
invisible without the O III filter.”
Spotting Abell 33 doesn’t require a
big telescope, but you’ll need the O III
filter. When I observed the planetary
with my 25-cm and 37.5-cm scopes, it
looked quite faint and vaguely annular.
A 7.2-magnitude star (HIP 47369) rests
just off the southwestern edge, and two
faint stars pin the north-northwestern
edge. A few years later, I swept up the
star field that contains Abell 33 withmy 130-mm refractor at low power,
and I was surprised I could spot it
immediately before checking its exact
position. This time, I had the advantage
of seeing the planetary higher in the
sky. Abell 33 has also been captured
with apertures as small as 80 mm.
We’ll end our tour with the
exceptionally beautiful planetary nebula
NGC 3242, also known as the Ghost
of Jupiter or the Eye Nebula. It lies
much farther along Hydra’s sinuous
body, 1.8° south of yellow-orange Mu
(μ) Hydrae and 27′ north of yellow-
white, 8.1-magnitude HIP 50966. Steve
Amerongen avers that this nebula is
“an absolutely fantastic object; very
beautiful; it has a vivid blue colour;
excellent at high powers; two distinct
shells are visible; the central star is easily
visible.” He observed the nebula through
his 75-cm scope, at 144× to 530×.
While the view through a large scope
is spectacular, the vivid blue colour
can be appreciated even with a 100-
mm scope, and a 25cm scope at high
power can reveal considerable detail. If
you’d like a little music while observing
NGC 3242, New York’s John McMahon
suggests ‘Ghost of Jupiter’ by Lettuce,
which you can listen to on YouTube. SUE FRENCH welcomes your
comments [email protected].TREASURES IN CANCER AND HYDRAObject Type Mag(v) Size/Sep RA Dec.
Messier 44 Open cluster 3.1 70 ′ h 40.4m +19 ° 4 0′
Messier 67 Open cluster 6.9 25 ′ h 51.4m +11° 4 9′
Abell 31 Planetary nebula 12.0 16.2′ 8 h 54.2m +8° 54′
IC 523 Spiral galaxy 13.1 56 ′′ × 35′′ 8 h 53.2m +9° 09′
Messier 48 Open cluster 5.8 30 ′ h 13.7m –5° 45′
Abell 33 Planetary nebula 12.6 4.5′ h 39.2m –2° 49′
NGC 3242 Planetary nebula 7.3 45 ′′ × 36′′ 10 h 24.8m –18° 39′
Angular sizes and separations are from recent catalogues. Visually, an object’s size is often smaller than
the catalogued value and varies according to the aperture and magnification of the viewing instrument.
Right ascension and declination are for equinox 2000.0.HYDRAq^1q^2+324210 h 35 m 10 h 30 m 10 h 25 m 10 h 20 m 10 h 15 m 10 h 10 m–16°–18°–20°Star magnitudes546
7
8
9