Sky and Telescope - November 2018 - 55

Soccer Balls or Galactic Footballs, the
latter in areas of the world where soccer
is more commonly referred to as football. Other Galactic Soccer Balls include
Abell 43 in Ophiuchus and Kronberger
61 in Lyra.
Moving 1.1° south-southwest of M15
takes us to the nicely matched stars that
form Struve 2799 (STF 2799 or Σ2799).
Through my 130-mm refractor at 102×,
these 7.4-magnitude twins are close but
attractively split. They are also similar
in hue. My ﬁrst impression was that
the eastern star shone yellow, while the
western one was closer to white, but
then they seemed to switch colors as I
concentrated on one star and then the
other. I usually trust my ﬁrst impressions, but look for yourself and see what
you think. STF 2799 is a binary star
whose current separation is a tight 1.9″,
and it won't widen another tenth of an
arcsecond until the year 2040.
You can see a much wider binary in
1 Pegasi, whose components are generously separated in the 130-mm scope
even at a mere 37×. This is fortunate
because the companion glows ﬁve
magnitudes dimmer than its primary
and would be tough to spot if huddled

NGC 7094 lies about 1.8º
east-northeast of M15.
While images reveal the
nebula's filamentary structure, in the eyepiece it will
look like a ghostly round
glow. Use an O III filter to
increase the contrast.

uu The view through a
15-inch reflector at 216×
reveals the dim 13.6-magnitude star at the center of
the planetary nebula NGC
7094.

as closely as STF 2799. Both stars emit
a golden sheen, with the attendant
perched northwest of its primary.
Although the orbital period isn't well
known, it appears to be well over
10,000 years, so the separation changes
at a glacial pace.
One of the brightest galaxies in Pegasus, NGC 7177 resides 2.5° east and 27′
north of 13 Pegasi. Seen with my 130mm scope at 37×, this spiral galaxy is a
small oval glow at the east-northeastern
end of a 4′-long arc of three faint ﬁeld
stars. At 102× a fourth star appears just
south of the galaxy. The oval is about

22h 00m

21h 40m

Star magnitudes

NGC 70 94 IM AG E: STEFA N BINNE WIES / JOSEF PÖPSEL;
SK E TCH: SUE FRENCH

+15°

23h 50m

23h 40m

77

1

+10°

7743

9

13

23h 45m
7742

21h 20m

5

7177

2′ long and two-thirds as wide, aligned
east-west. It's composed of a faint halo
surrounding a large, fairly bright, oval
interior. At 164× the core brightens
toward the center, where rests a brighter
nucleus. In my 10-inch scope at 207×
the core looks tilted with respect to the
galaxy's long axis.
Recent redshift-independent measurements place NGC 7177 about 80
million light-years away from us. Two
supernovae have been found in NGC
7177, the ﬁrst by Milton Humason dur-

PEGASUS

PEGASUS
+8°

3
4
5
6
7

7094

AG

Star magnitudes

+20°

22h 20m

u The exceedingly faint

M15

Σ2799
¡

+10°

b
EE

5
6
7
8
9
10

PISCES

EQUULE US

+6°

f
`
V

e
+5°

i

7

_

sk yandtelescope.com * N OV E M B E R 2 018

55
http://www.skyandtelescope.com
Sky and Telescope - November 2018

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