In this episode of Star Hopping with Kissimmee
Park Observatory, we'll look at the Taurus
region, and show you how to find these beautiful
deep sky objects:
The Pleiades
The Crab Nebula
And the Open Cluster Messier 37
Alright, Let's Go Star Hopping!

Hey Hello Hi and welcome to Episode 4 of Star
Hopping with Kissimmee Park Observatory!
I'm Dave Hearn, and I'll be your host.
In this series of programs we'll show you
the most beautiful sights in the night sky,
and explain exactly how to find them with
your binoculars or telescope.
In this episode we'll be looking at the region
of the sky containing the constellations of
Taurus and Auriga, another area that's thick
with deep sky objects.
This is because of the close proximity of
the Milky Way, which runs right through Auriga.
We also have two of the brightest stars in
the sky in each of these constellations, with
orange Aldebaran in Taurus, sometimes called
The Eye of the Bull, and the even brighter
Capella in Auriga.
You can't miss either of these beacons as
they rise in the eastern sky around 10:30
PM in late October and early November.
Capella is the sixth brightest star in the
sky, where Aldebaran comes in at number 14
on the brightest stars list.
Astronomers have a measurement that they use
to quantify the brightness of stars, called
the Magnitude scale.
Oddly, this scale runs backwards, with brighter
stars having lower magnitude numbers.
The very brightest objects in the sky have
magnitudes that are actually negative numbers.
The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is
magnitude -1.6.
Vega, in the constellation of Lyra, that we
discussed in the last episode, is magnitude
0.
Capella is also a magnitude 0 star.
Aldebaran is a bit fainter at magnitude 0.8.
In the city, light pollution limits visibility
to about third magnitude stars, but under
very dark skies you can see stars down to
about 6th magnitude, and these number in the
thousands.
So there are many, many more faint stars in
the sky than bright ones, and even more than
that are too faint to be seen with the naked
eye.
So we'll start our star hops for this episode
with an easy one; we're going to locate The
Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters.
The Pleiades appear in the famous Messier
List in position number 45 and is the brightest
object on the list.
This amazing open cluster is easily seen with
the naked eye in a dark sky, and it has the
shape of a dipper.
But it's not the Big Dipper or even the Little
Dipper, which are the constellations of Ursa
Major and Ursa Minor, respectively.
Finding M45 is not much of a Star Hop, as
it's so bright you can pretty much find it
immediately!
You'll see the orangey Aldebaran about 25
degrees up, in the eastern sky.
With your binoculars or even just your eyes,
look about 15 degrees up and slightly to the
left, and you'll find this spectacular group
of stars and nebula.
The stars contained in The Pleiades are hot
blue stars, and their light bounces off a
reflection nebula behind then, which gives
them a misty, shrouded look in astrophotos
like this one taken at KPO.
Most of the stars in the cluster are bright
enough to have their own names.
Pleione and Atlas are the little ones in the
handle.
Next is Alcyone which is the brightest one
in the whole cluster.
Merope is down and to the right, with a lot
of reflection nebula around it, and the front
of the dipper bowl is formed by Electra, Celaeno,
Taygeta, Sterope, Asterope, and Maia.
These stars are named after the Seven Sisters,
daughters of the Greek gods Atlas and Pleione,
which are also present in the cluster.
Again, M45 is the brightest object on the
Messier List, with all the stars and nebula
within it shining collectively at magnitude
1.5.
Moving on to our next target, well locate
the much fainter Crab Nebula in Taurus, otherwise
known as M1, the first object that Charles
Messier added to his list of things that weren't
comets!
The Crab is a supernova remnant, the remains
of the largest type of explosion in space,
when a supermassive star collapses upon itself
and explodes, flinging its stellar material
into the surrounding space.
In the case of the Crab, the leftover nebula
is the wreckage of a stellar explosion that
occurred centuries ago, first noted by Chinese
astronomers in the year 1054.
According to the Chinese records, it reached
a peak magnitude of -6, which is four times
brighter than Venus at its brightest, and
it was visible in the daylight for 23 days
straight.
Imagine seeing a bright star in the sky during
daylight!
That must have been amazing.
So let's start our Star Hop, and for this
one you will definitely need a telescope.
Starting on the bright star Aldebaran, let's
move down and to the left about 8 degrees,
to M Tauri, which is a double star with the
two component stars being about 5th magnitude.
Continue moving the same direction, about
the same distance again, about 8 degrees,
and you'll find Zeta Tauri, another double
star with components stars of 3rd and 5th
magnitude.
This is a great way to see the relative brightness
of the stars, similar to what we discussed
earlier.
Zeta has a ridiculous ancient Babylonian name,
let's see if I can pronounce it: "Shurnar
kab ti-sha-shutu".
Say that 5 times fast.
So, arriving at Zeta, we are only a little
over a degree away from the Crab, but the
only star we can hop to is about 7th magnitude.
At a right angle to the direction we have
been moving, look about a degree away, and
you'll see the star.
Take a few seconds to judge the brightness
of this star, as the Crab is slightly fainter.
So, now for the last movement.
Move about a half degree up and slightly to
the right, and you should find the faint fuzzy
that is the Crab Nebula, which softly glows
at magnitude 8.4.
A great way to glimpse faint objects like
this one in the telescope is to use a method
called "Averted Vision".
This is done be centering the object in the
eyepiece, then looking to the extreme left
of the field of view, but mentally paying
attention to the center.
It will seem that the object will brighten
a bit, and you may be able to discern some
additional details.
The reason why this works is because the center
of our eyes are essentially burned in by the
bright light we see during the day.
The outside of the retina is not so brightly
lit on a regular basis, so it is a bit more
sensitive.
This works great on extended faint objects
like galaxies and planetary nebulae.
Try this with the Crab and see if it works
for you.
Alrighty Then.
Our next and final target for this episode,
is the open Star Cluster M37 in the constellation
of Auriga.
Auriga has several bright clusters within
it, M36, M37, and M38, but 37 is the richest,
meaning it has the most stars in it.
To find M37, we will start at the 0 magnitude
star Capella that we discussed earlier.
Move a little over 8 degrees down to Menkalinan,
a bright star of magnitude 1.8.
Next, we'll move at a little greater than
a right angle about the same distance to Theta
Aurigae, at magnitude 2.7.
So Leap of Faith time again - no bright stars
between us and M37, so move about 5 degrees
to the right, (PAUSE) then slightly down,
and you should see M37 moving into view.
M37 consists of about 150 brighter stars,
and shines at magnitude 5.6.
So those are our three objects for this episode:
The Pleiades; M45, The Crab Nebula; M1, and
the open cluster M37.
Also, we learned about measuring star brightness
with the Magnitude scale, and also discussed
how to glimpse fainter objects in the eyepiece
by using the Averted Vision method.
Trailer
I hope you've enjoyed star hopping around
the Milky Way.
We're continue to bring you these astronomy
tutorials to you every couple of weeks, and
if we get inspired, sometimes more often.
They will be designed to help you find deep
sky objects that are up in the sky at the
time we post them to YouTube.
If you found this video useful, please consider
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We'd love to hear from you to discuss all
this great stuff up in the sky.
All the links to these places including our
website kpobservatory.org, can be found below
in the Episode Notes as well.
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Well thanks again for watching, and we'll
see you next time on Star Hopping with Kissimmee
Park Observatory.
