Sky & Telescope - November 2024 - 55

Suburban Stargazer by Ken Hewitt-White
A Sprinkle
of Stars
Rambling through eastern
Andromeda is easy and fun.
I
f someone says " Andromeda, " I don't
think of the well-known constellation,
nor the Princess Andromeda of
Greek mythology. Instead, I picture in
my mind the Andromeda Galaxy, M31.
Too bad for me that the famous spiral
galaxy, which looks spectacular in color
astrophotos, registers in my suburbanbased
telescopes as little more than a
pale, grey, diffuse nebulosity. Light pollution
is galaxy kryptonite.
Thankfully, there is more to
Andromeda than M31. Last fall, I
encountered a few modest deep-sky
treasures well away from M31 as I starhopped
through slightly more than 5°
of sky in the easternmost part of the
constellation. I conducted my leisurely
exploration with two very different
telescopes: an 8-inch (20-cm) f/6 Newtonian
reflector and a 4.7-inch (120mm)
f/7.5 apochromatic refractor. Both
instruments aced their assignments.
Join me on my recreational ramble
into a part of Andromeda that's too
often overlooked.
Almach Is Alright
My star-hop starting point last fall was
Gamma (γ) Andromedae, or Almach.
Shining at 2nd magnitude, Almach was
an obvious choice because it's a relatively
bright star. But there's an additional reason:
It's one of the most beautiful double
stars in the northern heavens. The
Almach system consists of a 2.3-magnitude
yellow sun and a 5.0-magnitude
blue sun 9.5″ apart. Together, they're a
compact combo of contrasting colors
you won't want to miss.
Almach was striking in my Newtonian
reflector - provided I applied sufficient
power. The blue secondary was
visible at 38× (with a 32-mm eyepiece),
though not really impressive. At 76×
(a 16-mm eyepiece), the components
were nicely separated and the vivid hues
clearly evident. Ditto for the apo refracSPRAWLING
OPEN CLUSTER Andromeda's
NGC 752, more than a degree in diameter,
is nicely framed in this 2½°-wide field of view.
The cluster is almost 1,200 light-years from
Earth. Although it contains only faint stars, it's
ably signposted by the beaming pair of 56 Andromedae
and HD 11727. The duo helps form
the blade of the celestial hockey-stick asterism
clearly visible below and right of NGC 752.
tor: it could resolve Almach tightly at
56× (the same 16-mm eyepiece), but the
split was much more pleasing at 100× (a
9-mm eyepiece). Beautiful!
After admiring Almach, I used my
8×50 finder to shift southward on a
zigzag star-hop. First, I dropped 2½°
to the southwest to 5.4-magnitude 55
Andromedae. Then I turned southeastAlternative
Andromeda
Object
Type
γ And
Σ222
NGC 752
Σ I4
Σ179
Double star
Double star
Open cluster
Double star
Double star
Mag(v)
2.3, 5.0
6.1, 6.7
5.7
5.8, 6.1
7.6, 8.1
Size/Sep
9.5″
16.6″
75.0′
202.5″
3.5″
RA
2h 03.9m
2h 10.9m
1h 57.6m
1h 56.2m
1h 53.2m
Dec.
+42° 20′
+39° 02′
+37° 50′
+37° 15′
+37° 19′
Angular sizes and separations are from recent catalogs. Visually, an object's size is often smaller than the
cataloged value and varies according to the aperture and magnification of the viewing instrument. Right
ascension and declination are for equinox 2000.0.
sk yand tele scope .o r g * NOVEMBER 2024 55
BERNHARD HUBL

http://skyandtelescope.org

Sky & Telescope - November 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - November 2024