Summer Nights Charts

Notes for Summer Nights charts

Orion

• Pleiades & Hyades
• M35 in Gemini, beside another small, dim cluster
• Orion’s belt cluster
• Orion Nebula M42, bright centre, outlying nebula visible on dark night
• M43 – part of same nebula divided off by dust lane
• Trapezium – tight quadruple star in heart of M42 – box shape
• NGC 1981 Open cluster
• Iota triple star – close double 2.7/7-11″, dim secondary, very dim third star further way in arc, mag 9.7-49”
• Same field as Iota, bright wide pair HIP 26197 & 99 4.8/5.6-32”
• Sigma quadruple – easy triple in line 3.7/6.6/6.3-13″/41″, dim fourth star close on opposite side 8.8-11”
• Mintaka 2.2/6.8-53″ wide but dim secondary
• Rigel 0.3/6.8-9.3″ close, difficult, much dimmer secondary
• Lambda 3.5/5.4-4.1” – very close, dimmer secondary, amongst large loose cluster of stars.

Double star notation:  3.5/6.1-100″  >> Stars are magnitude 3.5 and 6.1, separated by 100 arc seconds

Lepus

• Very wide bino double Gamma Lepus – 3.5/6.1-100”, unrelated stars.
• Wide double HIP 25397 in centre of Lepus, 5.8/7.5-26”
• M79 globular cluster, dim and fuzzy in small scope brighter concentrated centre.

Canis Major & Puppis

• M41 Open cluster – big, bright, many stars
• Tau Canis Major cluster – Just a bright star at first glance, but averted vision makes many stars appear!
• 145 CMa – colourful wide double 5/5.8-26″ Orange/Blue
• k-Puppis – Evenly matched close but easy “cat eyes” pair 4.4/4.6-10″
• M93 – rich small open cluster, many tiny stars and haze
• c-Puppis – Bright red star in big bright cluster NGC2451
• b-Puppis – near the dimmer cluster NGC2477 with hundreds of tiny stars and haze
• M47 big and bright, scattered stars
• M46 hundreds of dimmer stars – nice on a dark night
• 2 Puppis, easy double 6/6.8-17″
• M50 & M48, good open clusters, many stars

Monoceros

• Beta Monoceros triple. First 2 stars are a close double 4.6/5-7.2″. Secondary of these is very close double 5.0/5.3-2.9″
  Need highest power and a very steady night to split secondary. A fourth dimmer star is 250″ away.
• NGC 2232 – Loose cluster near Beta Mon, resolves in binos
• More stars of NGC2232 visible in telescope, need wide field.
• M48 – big open cluster. Look for bright Procyon, then over to triangle of Zeta,27 and 28. Carry on to M48
• The Rosette nebula contains a small cluster of 6 bright stars. On a dark night the nebula itself might be visible in binos with averted vision.
• Christmas tree cluster, NCG2264, needs wide field but shows stars like lights on a cone shaped Christmas tree.
• Follow arc of stars from Xi Gemini to 15 Mon, 13Mon , and Epsilon Mon