Sky & Telescope - March 2020 - 7

mounts is too steep for most beginners to
enjoy. Also, the awkward contortions you
wind up making in order to see certain parts
of the sky quickly become frustrating even
for experienced users. If you're a gearhead
and don't mind that steep learning curve -
and if you're young and ﬂexible - then you
might like an equatorial mount. But based
on what I've seen over the years, I'd say the
odds are about 10-to-1 against it.

The Farthest Visible Star

S&T's New Ownership

I'll admit it: I'm a little obsessed when
it comes to seeing the farthest objects
visible to me in the night sky. Knowing
distances gives me not just the drive to
attempt some really tough sightings,
but also adds to my observing experience. So I really enjoyed reading Dave
Tosteson's article "The Farthest Star"
(S&T: Nov. 2019, p. 57) and comparing
my accomplishments to his. For me and
my 10-inch SCT, I'm proud to have seen
several stars within M31 and M33!
But I'm really writing to inform Mr.
Tosteson of the farthest star I know of,
so that he can break his own record.
It's a luminous blue variable known
as NGC 2363-V1, in the galaxy NGC
2366, 11 million light-years distant. It
shines around magnitude 18!

Congratulations on the wonderful fullpage announcement (S&T: Oct. 2019,
p. 5) about your new ownership! Of the
many hundreds of stargazers worldwide
I correspond with, everyone is thrilled
and happy about how this turned out.
I'm sure Charlie and Helen Federer,
and all the many wonderful editors and
staffers of the past, are too! Thanks
for making this happen - it's a pivotal
event in the history of astronomy.

Scott N. Harrington
Evening Shade, Arkansas
p Readers have weighed in on whether this
vintage reflector and its equatorial mount would
be a good choice for beginners.

1970

JERRY OLTION

1995

FOR THE RECORD

* The scale corresponding to Zeta Andromedae's surface temperature (S&T:
Nov. 2019, p. 24) should have shown dark
shades as the coolest and light shades the
hottest. For a correct version, see https://
is.gd/ZetaAnd_temp.

SUBMISSIONS: Write to Sky & Telescope, 1 Alewife Center, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA or email: letters@
skyandtelescope.org. Please limit your comments to 250 words; letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.

75, 50 & 25 YEARS AGO by Roger W. Sinnott
1945

James Mullaney
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

º March 1945
Rocket or Meteor? "[C]oncerning
the German V-2 rocket bomb . . .
astronomers and meteorologists
will find especially noteworthy
the fact that [the] V-2 reaches the
heights where meteors are generally observed. And, as would be
expected, it is reported to glow
a dull red, so the time may come
when a meteor observer may have
to distinguish between natural and
man-made 'shooting stars.'
"The present range of the V-2
rocket is 200 miles from launching site to target, and its maximum
altitude is 60 miles. Its speed is
reported as about 4,500 miles an
hour, or 1.25 miles per second,
which is the same order of magnitude as that of the slowest meteors
entering the earth's atmosphere."
º March 1970
Infrared Enigma "Last year
[Caltech astronomers] published a
preliminary catalogue of over 5,000

bright infrared sources of emission [observed with] a 62-inch f/1
epoxy-mirror telescope at Mount
Wilson. [O]ne listed as IRC+10216
has turned out to be of exceptional
interest. . . .
"This object is in Leo . . . and on
a photograph taken with the 200inch telescope appears as a tiny
elliptical patch, about four seconds
of arc long. Although visually fainter
than magnitude 18, its observed
5-micron flux is greater than that
of any known object outside the
solar system. [Eric Becklin and colleagues] are inclined to interpret it
as an evolved long-period variable
star surrounded by an opaque shell
of dust."
Today called CW Leonis, or the
Peanut Nebula, it may be the nearest carbon star to our solar system
at just 300 light-years.
º March 1995
Divine Julius "Throughout the
history of astronomy great discoveries have been made from behind
a veil of superstition. Astronomical

events have often been interpreted
as omens, then manipulated to
suit the political needs of those
in power. No culture excelled in
that endeavor quite like that of the
ancient Romans - their astronomical coins were true masterpieces of
propaganda. . . .
"Shortly after Julius Caesar's
assassination in 44 B.C., a comet
was spotted and interpreted to be
Caesar's soul ascending to heaven.
In 17 B.C., with Augustus on the
throne, another comet appeared
and was believed to be Caesar's
deified spirit returning to hail the
beginning of a new age. Augustus
deemed it politically expedient to
commemorate the event on coins.
One depicts a small comet above
Caesar's head. Another has a full
image of a multirayed comet with
the inscription 'DIVVS IVLIVS'
(Divine Julius. . . ."
Astro-numismatist Linda Zimmermann discussed other old
coins believed to show planets,
stars, and even meteorite falls.
sk yandtelescope.org * MARCH 2 02 0

https://www.is.gd/ZetaAnd_temp https://www.is.gd/ZetaAnd_temp http://www.skyandtelescope.org

Sky & Telescope - March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - March 2020