Many constellations are known for having a very special deep-sky object within their borders, something so famous that when you read or hear the name of that constellation you immediately think of it, like an astronomical word association game. Orion? The Orion Nebula! Andromeda? The Andromeda Galaxy of course! Lyra? Easy: the Ring Nebula. And Perseus? It has to be the Double Cluster, right?
But not all zodiac signs have such a claim to fame. Many constellations are not home to a particularly striking or beautiful nebula, sparkling star cluster or swirling galaxy, and so they are often overlooked – like impatient tourists, observers wander through or past them on their way to more exciting destinations. These are the shy zodiac signs, the ones who hide in a corner of the living room during a star party, hidden behind a potted plant or next to the aquarium, talking to the dog while all the other, more confident, less socially awkward zodiac signs dance with each other or hang out in the kitchen, laughing and joking while eating all the pizzas and snacks.
But just because a zodiac sign doesn’t have a celebrity trait doesn’t mean there’s nothing to see in it. Each constellation has something within its borders worth tracking down if you look hard enough, like these “shy five” deep sky gems:
CETUS: The Skull Nebula, NGC 246
NGC 246, also known as the Skull Nebula, is a planetary nebula located about 1,600 light-years from Earth. It is also known to some observers as the Pac-Man Nebula due to the similarity of its shape to the greedy, gobbling video game character, but do not confuse NGC 246 with the other Pac-Man Nebula (NGC 281) or the much larger and brighter Rosette Nebula (NGC 2337), which some also call “the Skull.”
With a magnitude of around 11, NGC 246 is one of the faintest planets in the sky. Although it can be observed with smaller instruments from dark sky locations, this nebula really requires a telescope of 15 cm or larger to be properly observed: as a disk-shaped, lightly mottled haze with scattered foreground stars.
Credit: Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)
RAM: NGC 772, a beautiful galaxy
Let’s be honest: there’s not much to see in Aries. It’s the aerial equivalent of a remote country town you drive past on your way to somewhere more interesting. But if you park and wander around, you’ll come across NGC 772 – a beautiful 10th magnitude spiral galaxy, about 130 million light years away.
With a diameter of about 250,000 light-years, NGC 772 is larger than our own Milky Way. Long-exposure images show that the galaxy’s spiral arms are warped and distorted by nearby dwarf galaxies, but the arms are visually very faint and you only see the bright core unless you use a wide-aperture instrument.
Credit: Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)
CAMELOPARDALIS: IC 342, another beautiful galaxy
One of the shyest constellations, Camelopardalis the giraffe (hands up if you forgot there’s even a giraffe in the sky!) is quite missing from deep-sky objects, although many observers are drawn to the galaxy NGC 2403, which is located near the starry sky. The mouth of a giraffe. But halfway down the Giraffe’s back is another deep-sky object that is shamefully overlooked and neglected by observers.
IC 342 is a magnitude 8.4 spiral galaxy that is relatively close to us, somewhere between 7 million and 11 million light-years away. With binoculars it can be seen as a surprisingly large blurry blob, very similar to the much better known M33, and telescopes can easily make out the tightly coiled spiral arms. So why isn’t it better known? Perhaps for the same reason it’s called the Hidden Galaxy: because IC 342 unfortunately lies behind a very dusty part of our own Milky Way, which kind of spoils our view of it. If it were elsewhere in the sky, IC 342 would be a beautiful sight, easily visible to the naked eye.
Credit: Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)
LYNX: The Intergalactic Wanderer Globular Cluster, NGC 2419
Although lynxes are beautiful creatures in real life, the constellation Lynx, sandwiched between the Big Dipper and Gemini, is an inconspicuous beam of faint stars. However, it contains something that is definitely worth tracking down. Globular star cluster NGC 2419 was discovered by William Herschel on the last day of 1788. Overshadowed by brighter, better-known spheres such as M13 and Omega Centauri, NGC 2419 has a respectable magnitude of 10, meaning it can easily be seen as a smoky cloud with small telescopes. place.
Globular clusters orbit galaxies like moths fluttering around street lamps, but astronomers once thought that NGC 2419 was not orbiting the Milky Way but was instead some kind of rogue cluster. It was even nicknamed the Intergalactic Wanderer. We now know that it belongs to our Milky Way and sometimes passes beyond the Magellanic Clouds during its three-billion-year orbit.
Credit: Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)
SAGITTA: Globular cluster M71
If we could somehow truly enable the “artwork” of the sky, as we can through a phone app or computer program, we would see an arrow at Vulpecula the Fox’s paws. This is Sagitta, and its main purpose appears to be to guide observers to the famous Dumbbell Nebula (M27), which lies just north of its sharp point. But Sagitta itself also contains an overlooked Messier object: M71, a globular star cluster 13,000 light-years away. M71 is a loose globular cluster, meaning its stars are less densely packed than those in better-known spheres. In fact, it probably looks more like M44 (the Beehive open cluster) than M13 (the famous Hercules globular cluster). A dark indentation in the west side is very clearly visible under high magnification.
Credit: Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)
These are just five overlooked objects in the sky. There are many, many more. So the next time you’re out on a clear night and aiming your telescope at the stars, don’t swing it directly at your favorite objects—the brash objects that shout, “Look at me!” Ignore them. They’re not going anywhere. Give the shy deep sky objects a chance to tell their stories for a change.