Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society

by Forrest Lockhart

Welcome to Meridian, a new column highlighting one or two celestial objects found on or near the meridian line during the month. Merriam-Webster defines the meridian as “a great circle of the celestial sphere passing through its poles and the zenith of a given place”. So each month the object we’ll be observing may be located by pointing your scope somewhere along that invisible north-to-south line. For instance, February might find us scanning the constellation Auriga (aw-RYE-gah) for one of three beautiful open clusters, M36, M37, and M38, located within or just outside of that well-known stellar pentagon.

Observations of the featured objects will be made primarily with my trusty 4” F/5.4 refractor, with some occasional peeks through my 12” Dob for verification of faint detail. But the main objective will be to find, observe, and describe some of the truly beautiful and interesting objects to be found with lightweight, easily transported telescopes. The 4” refractor might be used on either an alt-azimuth or a German equatorial mount, neither of which has GoTo capability. So if you are similarly equipped, being able to locate the objects by star-hopping will be part of the challenge. If you are blessed with GoTo, join the party anyway!

To successfully star-hop you will need a good set of star charts. After trying, and buying, a wide variety of charts over the years, I urge you to purchase Sky & Telescope’s Pocket Sky Atlas, by Roger W. Sinnott. This is a neat 6 ½” x 9” spiral-bound gem with over 80 pages of easy-to-read charts printed on dewproof paper that promises to last a good many years of outdoor use. Most of the deep sky objects I’m able to observe are found within the Sky Atlas. S&T sells it for about $20.00, plus shipping, but I suggest that you obtain it on Amazon.com. I purchased mine there for about $15.00, plus shipping.

I hope that you will E-mail your favorite or most challenging objects to me a month or so before publication. I will select an object with the most interest shown by your input, grab my refractor, and go out in search of the faint fuzzy. The next issue will record what I was able to observe and some interesting facts about the object. By the time you read this, March will be the featured month.

I’m looking forward to writing Meridian and hope you will take an active part in selecting the featured celestial objects for each month. So send your suggestions to me at forrest.lockhart@sbcglobal.net and let’s find some fuzzies!

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