Sky and Telescope - January 2018 - 55

TOP: M A RTIN G ER M A NO; BOT TO M: POSS-II / STSCI / CA LTECH / PA LO M A R OBSERVATORY

standing in the ﬁeld of astronomy,
it gains some small claim to fame in
Invasion of the Star System NGC 358, a
science-ﬁction novel by Leon McDonald
and Yomanaa Khieowong. Strangely, the
distance to their star system is given as
a mere 11.8 light-years.
Climbing 1.8° north-northwest
from NGC 366 takes us to Berkeley
62, one of 85 original discoveries by
Arthur F. Setteducati and Harold F.
Weaver of the University of California,
Berkeley. They published their ﬁ ndings in a two-part, 1962 paper entitled
"Newly Found Star Clusters."
Berkeley 62 is an obvious, fairly small
hazy patch bearing a few very faint stars
through the 105-mm scope at 28×. A
magniﬁcation of 127× shows a straight
line of three faint, equally spaced stars
that leans east-northeast. To its north
sits a six-star curve, concave toward the
north-northwest, including the cluster's
brightest star shining at magnitude
10.8. Three very faint stars are also visible. The 10-inch scope at 166× shows
about 40 stars down to magnitude 14½
within the 10′ diameter given by Setteducati and Weaver.
Close to Berkeley 62, you'll ﬁnd the
binocular asterism Eddie's Coaster,
named for Eddie Carpenter, the longtime British observer who ﬁrst noticed
it. Stretching across 2.8° of sky, the
double-peaked rollercoaster consists
of 7th- to 9th-magnitude stars, so
don't be distracted by the brighter stars
surrounding it. About 20 stars form
the coaster's track, as viewed through
12×36 binoculars from my semirural
home. Berkeley 62 sits north of the
track's valley. To the east the track rises
slightly before plunging southward to
7.3-magnitude HD 7156 glittering near
the coaster's end. West of the valley, the
track climbs a less pronounced peak and
then turns down a bit, offering a milder
ride at the coaster's start.
Like a big carnival balloon, Dolidze
13 ﬂoats 23′ north-northwest of HD
4841, the 6.9-magnitude star that marks
the beginning of Eddie's Coaster. The
105-mm refractor at 47× shows a pretty
swarm of gleaming motes spanning
about 12′. A 5.4-magnitude, yellow-white

NGC 366

NGC 358

p The brightest stars of the open cluster NGC 358 form a letter D, or perhaps a heavy-lidded eye,
when viewed through the telescope. Move to the northeast, skirting a trio of orange 13th-15th
magnitude twinklers, to find the more populous NGC 366.

Berkeley 4

HD 3940
HD 4775
King 16

Dolidze 13

p Fifth-magnitude HD 4775 marks the northeastern edge of the open cluster Dolidze 13. The
cluster King 16 lies less than 1° west of Do 13 and about 9′ southeast of 7th-magnitude HD 3940.
Berkeley 4 sparkles just 5′ northeast of King 16, looking like an upside-down Y.

star nuzzles the group's northeastern
edge. My 10-inch reﬂector shows about
25 stars loosely sprinkled across 13′.
Unlikely as it seems that such a scattered collection of stars is a true cluster,
Dolidze 13 appears in a 2016 cluster
catalog by Nina V. Kharchenko and colleagues. They assign an 8,000-light-year
distance and a 900-million-year age.
The 47× view of Dolidze 13 in the
refractor includes King 16 and Berkeley 4, small knots of stars that are easy

to overlook. A 4½′-wide smile of ﬁve
10th- and 11th-magnitude stars rests
5′ east-southeast of Berkeley 4. At 153×
King 16 displays six faint to very faint
stars arranged in the shape of a skinny V
whose northeastern arm is caved inward
and marked by a double star at its end.
At 174× Berkeley 4 reveals an arc of ﬁve
stars, the westernmost a close double,
plus a sixth star south of the arc.
In the 10-inch reﬂector at 70×, all
but the base of King 16's V is enshrined
sk yandtelescope.com * JA N UA RY 2 018

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Sky and Telescope - January 2018

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