"A fine nebula, very strong" is how discoverer Caroline Herschel described her finding of 30 October 1783. Also known as NGC 7789, this is actually an open cluster in Cassiopeia. It is magnitude 6.7 and can be found 2˚53' southwest of the F-class magnitude 2.3 star Caph. The wonderful Celestial Handbook says it is "an unusually rich galactic star cluster", and it probably contains at least 1000 stars.
Tony Flanders calls the object "perhaps the loveliest" of her discoveries, but tell Stephen James O'Meara that. He terms the object The Screaming Skull for his Ghost Hunt! The Hunt is a collection of over 100 celestial objects suitable for Halloween viewing. That's tonight! The Rose/Skull (depending on your disposition) is currently about sixty-two degrees up.
More information:
Celestial Handbook by Robert Burnham, pp. 532-533.
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/ngc/n7789.html
Caroline's Rose (Melotte 245)
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 6196
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA