The Sky in April

Spring Double Stars: The Three Leaps of the Gazelle

March 1997 : By Nan D'Antuono

The Great Bear Ursa Major is high in the north these Spring evenings. Along his southwestern border, shared with the constellations Lynx, Leo Minor, and Leo lie the three distinctive pairs of third magnitude stars known from ancient times by many names, one of the best known of which is the charming name "The Three Leaps of the Gazelle." Three of the six leap stars are wonderful doubles, and there are many more awaiting discovery in Ursa Major.

Some Bright Spring Double Stars

April 2006 : By Glenn Chaple

To most deep sky enthusiasts, spring means “galaxies.” Hundreds of these island universes – many in the Coma-Virgo cluster – are within the reach of backyard scopes. Often forgotten are the beautiful double stars that also inhabit the spring skies. Here are ten of the best:

A Selection of Double Stars in Cancer

April 2008 : By Glenn Chaple

For our spring double star selection, we’ll say goodbye to Gemini and shift eastward to the faint constellation Cancer. Notable for its bright Messier cluster M44 (the Praesepe), Cancer is also home to a splendid array of double and multiple stars. How many can you notch? (Data from the Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS)

A Better Galaxy Guide: Late Spring

May 2009 : By Craig Cortis

Those of you who enjoyed my first installment on this subject will find this second part to be even better. Three constellations are covered on the accompanying list of recommended objects and two—Virgo and Coma Berenices-feature the grandest, richest assortment of galaxies bright enough to be seen in small-to-medium aperture instruments.

A Better Galaxy Guide: Early Spring

April 2009 : By Craig Cortis

We all know about the wealth of galaxies that populate the sky beginning around this time of year, but if you’re not an experienced deep-sky observer, where do you begin?

Mizar, The First Double Star

May 2009 : By Glenn Chaple

The middle star in the handle of the Big Dipper, Mizar is the easiest double star for the novice to locate. It boasts historical importance as the first double star discovered.

44 Boötis

June 2009 : By Glenn Chaple

44 Boötis, whose 210-year orbit is highly inclined to our line-of-sight, has opened up. Its magnitude 5.3 and 6.2 component stars are separated by 2.2 arc-seconds.

Sirius

April 2010 : By Glenn Chaple

Next time you set out to do some “serious” astronomy, try a moment to make a “Sirius” observation. You’ll be delighted you did.

Can You Find a Quasar? (You Might be Surprised)

May 2010 : By Craig Cortis

Readers having 8” or larger telescopes might wish to observe a quasar, provided you can follow a detailed finder chart and manage to isolate a 12.8 magnitude object that looks exactly like a star, but actually is not. Rather it’s the brightest known quasar and, at a distance of 2.5 billion light years, will be by far and away the most distant thing in the universe most of you will ever see in your lives.

M40: The “Unknown” Messier Object

May 2010 : By Glenn Chaple

Arguably the oddest member of the Catalog, M40 isn’t a cluster, nebula, or galaxy. It’s a double star! We might well label M40 “Messier’s Mistake.”

The Constellations of Spring

April 2011 : By Francine Jackson

As the warm weather starts letting us know that seasonal change is really happening, we can look to the skies to remind us that springtime is once again coming to us.

Seeking Markarian 421: The Brightest Blazar

March 2011 : By Craig Cortis

An easy star hop leads to a BL Lacertae-type active galaxy in Ursa Major that is visible in 8-inch and larger backyard telescopes.

NGC 2903: Spiral Galaxy in Leo

April 2011 : By Glenn Chaple

To the deep-sky aficionado, spring means one thing – galaxies. Dozens of these island universes are within the grasp of small-aperture telescopes, while a 10-inch Dob can corral thousands. The constellation Leo is home to some of the brighter spring galaxies, including five listed in the Messier Catalog. One, however, escaped the eye of the French comet-hunter, even though it’s visible in binoculars from dark-sky locations.

3C 273: Quasar in Virgo

May 2011 : By Glenn Chaple

“How far can you see with that telescope?” It’s a question I occasionally hear from visitors who peer into my telescope at public star parties. The farthest my telescopes have taken my eye, I tell them, is 2 billion light years - to the quasar 3C 273.

Variable Star R Leonis

March 2012 : By Glenn Chaple

On the evening of March 1, 1918, a young Ohio farm boy trained a small refracting telescope towards the variable star R Leonis. He estimated its brightness, later forwarding the information to the American Association of Variable Star Observers. It was the first of over 132.000 variable star observations the legendary Leslie Peltier would submit to the AAVSO.

Algieba: Double Star in Leo

April 2012 : By Glenn Chaple

One of the finest double stars in the spring sky – indeed, in all the heavens – is gamma (y) Leonis. Its proper name, Algieba, comes from the Arabic Al Jabbah (The Lion’s Mane).

Porrima: Binary Star in Virgo

May 2012 : By Glenn Chaple

Compiling a list of the finest double stars for backyard telescopes is always a work in progress. The list is forever in flux, because many showpiece double stars are binary systems that periodically close to the point where they can’t be resolved by small-aperture telescopes. Such is the case with Porrima (gamma [γ] Virginis).

Ghost of Jupiter: NGC 3242

April 2014 : By Glenn Chaple

This planetary nebula gets its nickname “Jupiter’s Ghost” because its angular size and slightly oval shape (40” by 35”) approximate those of its namesake planet. Make Jupiter 10 magnitudes fainter and change its color from lively yellow to pale blue-green, and you have NGC 3242 – Jupiter’s Ghost!

M97: The Owl Nebula

June 2014 : By Glenn Chaple

Like its neighbor M108, M97 was discovered by Messier’s contemporary Pierre Méchain in 1781. Described as one of the fainter of the Messier objects, M97 can nonetheless be glimpsed with small aperture scopes.

Getting to Know the Big Dipper

March 2011 : By Jim Hendrickson

With the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere comes the culmination of the northern sky’s most recognized asterism, the Big Dipper. This familiar group of seven stars is notable for having a clear resemblance to its namesake (it is easy to imagine it forming the shape of a large spoon), but how much do you really know about the Big Dipper?

M101: Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

April 2013 : By Glenn Chaple

One of the best examples of a star-hop is the one that takes us from Mizar (the middle star in the Handle of the Big Dipper) to the face-on spiral galaxy M101. It’s a fortuitous situation because, were it isolated, M101 might be one of the more difficult Messier objects to locate.

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy

May 2013 : By Glenn Chaple

One of the more noteworthy examples of an edge-on spiral galaxy bisected by a dark dust lane is M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. The nick-name arises from the galaxy’s resemblance to the traditional Mexican headwear, the bright nuclear bulge forming the hat and the spiral arms/dust lane the wide brim.