Sky & Telescope - October 2019 - 62

it isn't: You have to have a ﬁeld of view large enough to be able
to know when you are on the object and when you have left
it. If you do have a telescope with a large enough ﬁeld of view
(the nebula is more than 2½° long!), use the "ﬁeld sweeping"
technique and NGC 1499 should become quite evident. It's
also best to keep 4th-magnitude Xi (ξ) Persei, or Menkib, out
of the ﬁeld so as not to ruin your dark-adapted eyes.
We'll leave NGC 1499 by exploring a gigantic dark nebula
to which Lynds assigned the identiﬁcation number 188. This
behemoth starts with LDN 1449 on the northwest end of
NGC 1499, and you can follow the dark nebulosity up toward
3rd-magnitude Epsilon (ε) Persei before it curves east, then
southeast, and ﬁnally ends at NGC 1579.
Recenter your telescope back to Epsilon and then nudge it
southwest a little less than 2° and you'll ﬁnd the reﬂection
nebula vdB 24. You should see two curving chains of 10th-

p VDB 24 This faint, bluish reflection nebula - captured with the 4-meter Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory - lies northeast
of NGC 1499. The nebula is illuminated by the variable star, XY Persei.

and 11th-magnitude stars. Where these chains approach
each other in the center of the ﬁeld, you'll ﬁnd several small,
bright nebulae in a wider area of fainter nebulosity. The star
at the center of all this is the 10th-magnitude variable star
XY Persei, and just off the bright nebula, some 2′ northeast, is
an 11th-magnitude red star that may also be associated with
the nebulosity. Returning to Epsilon and from there swinging
1½° north you'll come to a classical dark nebula, LDN 1440.

The Grand Finale
To conclude our tour of nebulae in Perseus, we're going to
head to a collection of some rather fantastic objects in one of
the more complex regions in the sky. Two reﬂection nebulae,
IC 348 and NGC 1333, lie a smidgen less than 3½° apart in
the southernmost reaches of the constellation. They bracket
several dark nebulae, including B1, B2, B3, and B4. B5 is in
the outskirts, northeast of IC 348, and also associated with
the region are B202, B204, and B206, which spill south
into Aries. Lying on the border between Perseus, Aries, and
62

OCTOBE R 2 019 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

Taurus, these clouds of gas and dust contribute to the Taurus
dark cloud complex. Let's take a closer look at these objects
and their companions.
Start by locating 4th-magnitude Omicron (ο) Persei (also
known as 38 Persei and Atik). South of this blue star is an
open star cluster that you'll easily see is associated with a
bright nebula - you've found the reﬂection nebula IC 348.
This star-forming region, discovered in 1866 by American
astronomer Truman Henry Safford, is somewhat overwhelmed
by the presence of such a brilliant star a mere 8′ away.
Some 10′ north-northeast of IC 348 (and 5′ northeast of
Omicron) is a faint double composed of a 14th-magnitude star
and its 16th-magnitude sidekick - you should be able to spot
the reﬂection nebula Ced 21 here. Slewing around 1° northeast of Omicron, about three-quarters of the way in a direct
line to Eta (η) Persei - also known as 42 Persei - will bring us
to B5, which stretches into the upper left limit of this region.
Reorient yourself with Omicron, and we'll head into the
main conglomeration of objects here. From Omicron, slide
southwest about 25′ and you'll ﬁnd a double star consisting of
11th- and 14th-magnitude components - these are associated with the faint nebulosity of the reﬂection nebula DG 21.
Continuing on our southwestern route we come to B4,
a large dark nebula that has a protuberance at its northern
edge, which is B3. Following an arc of 7th- to 9th-magnitude
stars (HD 22418, the reddish HD 22360, and HD 22307) at
the southwestern end of B4 brings you to B1. To its upper
right you'll ﬁnd B2, an elongated dark cloud peppered with
a smattering of brighter stars. Before heading to our ﬁnal
stop, let's visit two reﬂection nebulae on the far western edge.
Moving almost 2° west-southwest of the approximate center
of B2 brings us to vdB 12, which is illuminated by the 7thmagnitude star HD 21110. About ¾° south you'll come to the
pretty but challenging vdB 13 (just over the border in Aries).
Let's ﬁnish our tour with a closer look at NGC 1333, an
interesting object discovered by Eduard Schönfeld in 1855. The
brightest part of NGC 1333, triangular in shape, surrounds a
10.5-magnitude star, HIP 16243. It extends to the southwest
and can show some texture during periods of good seeing. As
you slew your telescope farther southwest you will ﬁnd various
nebulous areas depending on the telescope used and the quality of your site and sky. A large telescope under ideal conditions may reveal some of the many Herbig-Haro (HH) objects
in the area, bright areas of nebulosity associated with newborn stars that may be harboring nascent planetary systems.
An example of possible protoplanetary disks in this region is
HH 12 on the southwestern edge of NGC 1333. At the outer
edges of the nebulosity, south of NGC 1333 and HH 12, is
a chain of Herbig-Haro objects that extends in a southeastnorthwest direction. Included in the chain are HH 7, HH 8,
HH 9, HH 10, and HH 11. On its own, some 4′ southeast of
the chain, is HH 5. Bear in mind that Herbig-Haro objects are
difﬁcult targets because they're small. They're also faint. Many
are often overlooked in nebula observing sessions because
they don't always appear nebulous, but they're well worth

T. A . RECTOR / UNIV ERSIT Y OF A L ASK A A NCHOR AG E /
H. SCHWEIK ER / WIY N / NOAO / AUR A / NSF

Nebulae Galore

Sky & Telescope - October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - October 2019