Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 54

RON BRECHER
MARCH 2023 OBSERVING
Suburban Stargazer by Ken Hewitt-White
tion to the fainter stars representing
Castor's western foot.
That bit of anatomy, symbolized by
Best Foot Forward
Deep-sky treasures abound in the westernmost
foot of Gemini.
M
id-March. Nightfall. I face south
and gaze way up to admire the
stars Castor and Pollux, 4.5° apart in
the constellation Gemini, the Twins.
Gemini's roughly rectangular pattern
embodies two brothers standing sideby-side
in the heavens with 1.6-magnitude
Castor and 1.1-magnitude Pollux
serving as the boys' celestial visages.
Heady stuff, but I'm shifting my atten3.3-magnitude
Eta (η) Geminorum, is
named Propus, which means " forward
foot. " My vivid imagination provides
more detail: The heel is 2.9-magnitude
Mu (μ), and the toes are 4.2-magnitude
1 Geminorum. The three stars
form a bent east-west row, 4.4° long
- if I can see them. Eta and Mu are
easy, but 1 Gem is barely visible in my
light-polluted suburban sky.
So why all the fuss over a foot?
The answer lies in the Milky Way,
which flows across the southern half of
Gemini. The star-rich galactic equator
runs right past 1 Gem. In my mind's
eye, I see young Castor dipping his toes
into a deep pool of Milky Way stars.
Local light pollution prevents me from
appreciating this pool with my unaided
eyes, but it's a delight to examine in a
backyard telescope.
Join me on a heel-to-toe examination
of Castor's western foot. I'm using
a 120-mm (4.7-inch) f/7.5 apochromatic
refractor, though any 4- or 5-inch
scope of good quality will do.
Foot Fare
Our exploration begins at Eta
Geminorum. Eta is a long-period
variable star and a challenging binary
cataloged as BU 1008. Its 6.2-magnitude
B component is just 1.8″ westward.
I've never tried to split Eta before and,
alas, the wee B is a no-show in my
apo. However, Eta slowly ranges from
magnitude 3.1 to 3.7 over a span of 234
days. Eta is bright tonight, but when
it's near minimum the pair should be
easier to resolve. I plan on trying the
Eta Challenge again.
A 30-mm, wide-angle eyepiece on my
refractor generates a 2° field of view at
UNALIKE CLUSTERS The prominent open
cluster M35 is located in the western foot
of Gemini, the Twins. Although nearly 3,000
light-years from Earth, the object is an easy
binocular object and glorious in any size of
telescope. Of the many fine clusters in the
winter Milky Way, this is the author's favorite.
Sharing the telescope field is the much dimmer
but more populous NGC 2158, which is at least
four times farther away than M35.
54 MARCH 2023 * SKY & TELESCOPE

Sky & Telescope - March 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - March 2023

Contents
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - Cover1
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - Cover2
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 1
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - Contents
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 3
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 4
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 5
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 6
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 7
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 8
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 9
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 10
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 11
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 12
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 13
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 14
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 15
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Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 18
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Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 40
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Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 49
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - 50
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Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - Cover3
Sky & Telescope - March 2023 - Cover4
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