The constellation of Cassiopeia is a great constellation to look at. It offers a variety of nice telescopic objects including two Messier catalog open clusters. Cassiopeia is one of the easiest constellations to pick out by looking for a very distinctive "W." The queen lies in the middle of the milky way offering a beautiful backdrop of faint stars for all looks. Cassiopeia is mainly full of Open Clusters which are noted on the sky chart shown below.
Cassiopeia was the legendary queen of Ethiopia, known throughout the land for her elegant beauty. Becoming increasingly vain, Cassiopeia boasted that she was even more lovely than the Sea Nymphs, goddesses of unmatched beauty who ruled over nature. Enraged by Cassiopeia's false bragging, the Sea Nymph's begged the God of the Sea, Poseidon, to punish the queen for her insults and conceit. Poseidon became so angry with Cassiopeia that he unleashed the horrible sea monster, Cetus the Whale, and sent him to destroy the coast of Cassiopeia's homeland. The Sea Nymphs also sought eternal punishment for Cassiopeia, arranging for her to be placed in the heavens tied to a chair. In the northern sky, Cassiopeia sits, forever circling the celestial pole.
Eta Cassiopeiae* is a fine yellow and red binary. Some observers see them as more gold a nd purple shining at magnitudes 3.4 & 7.5, separated 12.7".
Iota Cassiopeiae is a triple system, with two being a visual binary shining at 4.6, 6.9; being separated by 7.3".
Omicron Cassiopeiae has a faint companion: 4, 11; being separated by 33.6".
Phi Cassiopeiae is another multiple system, with rather wide components. This binary lies on the edge of NGC 457 and shines at 5, 12, 7; with separations of 48.6" & 134".
Sigma Cassiopeiae* shines at magnitudes 5.0 & 7.1 and is separated by 3".
| Messier | Type | Mag. | Size | NGC# |
| M52 | Open Cluster | 8.0 | 13.0' | 7654 |
| M103 | Open Cluster | 7.0 | 6.0' | 581 |
M52 - This beautiful open cluster is about 12' in diameter, and is composed of relatively bright stars. The cluster is relatively concentrated to the center, and is dominated by a bright red star.
M103 - This is a relatively small open cluster, about 8' in diameter. It contains about 20 relatively bright stars, and is loosely gathered. It is seen through the finder scope or binoculars as a slightly hazy patch. In small scopes, you may not think you are seeing an open cluster due to so few resolved stars, so be patient trying to find it.
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Image of M52 courtesy of SEDS: |
Image of M103 by Michael Purcell: |
M52 and M103 represent some of the easier star hops going. For M52, follow the right side of the "W" Beta Cassiopeiae or Caph straight out for 6 degrees and M52 is almost on a direct line. M103 can’t even be considered a star hop since in most scopes it will appear in the field of view when you get to the Bottom Left of the "W" or the bright star Gamma Cassiopeiae. On some of the higher f/ratio scope you might have to nudge toward Eta Cassiopeiae.
Cassiopeia offers some very good open clusters. In fact, many of them are more interesting than M103. Some of my favorites include the NGC 6XX open clusters which reside under the left hand side of the "W". If you find M103, just slew a little bit towards Eta Cassiopeiae to find them. Some of the other highlights include: NGC 457 which is a globular cluster about four degrees SE of Gamma Cassiopeiae. The bright star Phi Cassiopeiae is considered a part of this cluster. This star is one of the most luminous known, with at least 200,000 times the light of the sun. NGC 7789 is a rich open cluster with many hundreds of stars located about three degrees SW of Beta Cassiopeiae.
- Andy Weeks
* Astronomical League Double-Star Club
1 The Constellation Cassiopeia - The Seated Queen, courtesy of American Association of Amateur Astronomers, http://www.corvus.com/con-page/autumn/cas-01.htm
