Sky and Telescope - January 2018 - 43

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A Stingray in the Sky

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Binocular Highlight by Mathew Wedel

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WHEN TO
USE THE MAP

Late Nov
Early Dec
Late Dec
Early Jan
Late Jan

11 p.m.
10 p.m.
9 p.m.
8 p.m.
Dusk

These are standard times.

spent a few years fanatically working my way
through observing lists. But these days I'm just
as likely to head out with no firm plan or destination, and see what the sky serves up. I don't see as
many different things, but I discover more.
I was on a ramble through the Milky Way last
winter when I stumbled on a rich concentration of
stars on the boundary between Orion, the Hunter,
and Taurus, the Bull. Even low-power binoculars will
show about two dozen stars in a fat crescent spanning 4° from north to south. From the center of the
crescent, a chain of 5th- and 6th-magnitude stars
runs off to the east-southeast. I can't help but see a
stingray, swimming westward above Orion's head.
It turns out that I wasn't the first to snare this
leviathan in the depths of the sky. The central stars
of the crescent make up the proposed open cluster
Collinder 65. I say "proposed" because further work
has cast serious doubt on the cluster's reality. With
distances ranging from less than 50 light-years to
over 1,000, it seems that the stars of Collinder 65 are
probably just a chance alignment of unrelated suns.
I'm okay with that. Science is a process of revising our understanding of the universe in light of new
information. So is observational astronomy, for each
of us that goes out exploring. The subtle beauty of
celestial objects often resides as much in the mind
as it does in the sky. I knew the stingray wasn't real
when it first swam into my field of view. But it's an
enchanting sight, one that draws me farther into the
depths of the galaxy. 
To discover for yourself how much is up there,
may I politely suggest that you grab your binoculars
and, well, get lost?

¢ MATT WEDEL is out in the dark somewhere, taking his own advice.
sk yandtelescope.com * JA N UA RY 2 018

43
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Sky and Telescope - January 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - January 2018
