Observing List For Starry Starry Nights
August 13, 14, 15, 2004

  1) Arcturus: 37 LY away, 25x larger than our sun, 4 solar masses, 115x more luminous.
  2) Vega: Blue star, 26 LY away, 58x more luminous than our sun, 3x larger, 9200 degrees C.
  3) Altair: 16 LY, 1.5x the size of our sun and 9x brighter.  It spins 160 mps at the equator, 1 rotation in 6.5 hours. 
  4) Deneb: A Superstar, 1600 LY away, 60,000x brighter than our sun, 60x bigger than our sun.
  5) Antares: Red Giant, 520 LY away, diameter is about 600 million miles, 9,000x brighter than the sun. 
  6) Polaris (North Star): The 49th brightest star in the sky.  800 LY away.  9 mag companion at 18".
  7) Delta Scorpio: This star flared four years ago, nearly doubling in brightness.

  8) Alcor/Mizar: Double star, naked eye, plus the bright one too.  88 LY.
  9) Albireo: Double star, mag. 3.1 and 5.1, 34" apart.  385 LY away, stars are 4000 AU apart.
10) Epsilon Lyrae: A double-double star. 180 LY away, true separation is ~160 AU for each system.
11) Beta Scorpio: Double star, mag. 2.6 and 4.9, 13" apart. 600 LY away.
12) Omicron Cygni: A wide triple star system.  Mags 3.8, 4.8, 7.0 and at 106” and 308”.

13) M 63: Spiral galaxy, about 24 million LY away.  About 86,000 LY across, contains 10 billion stars.
14) M 94: Galaxy.  From Alpha CVN go 1 d preceding and 2.7 d N.  About 14 million LY, 16,000 across.
15) M 13: Globular Cluster, 23,000 LY, > 300,000 stars, 140 LY across.  First recorded by Edmund Halley.
16) M 57: Ring Nebula.  1200 LY, 0.5 LY across.  Caused by a star explosion about 20,000 years ago.
17) M 29: Open Cluster, 4400 LY away, 15 LY across.
18) M 27: A nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula..  About 900 LY away and 1.5 LY across.
19) M 11: Open cluster.  6,000 LY away and 21 LY across.  At least 600 stars
20) M 4: Globular Star Cluster. 7,000 LY away, 70 light-years across, ~10,000 stars.
21) M 80: Globular Star Cluster. 27,000 LY away, 50 LY dia.  2.5d W and 3.5d N of Antares.
22) M 6: About 1,600 LY away and 20 LY across.  120 stars.
23) M 7: About 800 LY away.  About 80 stars.
24) M 17: The Swan Nebula.  5000 LY away, brightest part is 12 LY (72 trillion miles) long.
25) M 16: Eagle Nebula, an open cluster and nebula. 9,000 LY away and 30 LY across.  The HST showed columns here.
26) M 18: Open cluster.  4,000 LY away.  About 40 stars.
27) M 24: A large nebula.  9,400 LY away and 330 LY across.  Light and dark areas.
28) M 23: Open Cluster.  4 degrees W of M24.  About 2,000 LY away, with ~ 75 stars.
29) M 8: Lagoon Nebula, 5200 LY away.
30) M 20: The Trifid Nebula.  1.5 deg. N of M8.  About 5,000 LY away.
31) M 28: Globular cluster.  About 20,000 LY away and 65 LY across.
32) M 22: Globular cluster.  About 10,000 LY away, with > 75,000 stars.

33) NGC 7789: An open cluster. From B Cass. go 1.5 d. p and 2.5 d S.
34) Andromeda Galaxy:  About 2.3 million LY away, 130,000 LY across.  Contains 300 billion stars.
35) Double Cluster:  7200 LY away, 200 stars each.

36) Comet LINEAR (C/2003 K4): Discovered by an automated telescope, this comet is 150 million miles away.
37) Comet NEAT (C/2001 Q4): Discovered by an automated telescope, this comet is 200 million miles away.
38) Comet SWAN (C/2004 H6): Discovered by an automated telescope, this comet is 85 million miles away.

39) Uranus: The seventh planet from the sun, 1.76 billion miles away.  Green in color.  Discovered in 1781.
40) Neptune: The eighth planet from the sun, 2.70 billion miles away.  Slightly blue in color. Discovered in 1846.
41) Pluto: The ninth planet from the sun, 2.81 billion miles away.  A very faint “star”.  Discovered in 1930.

42) V Aquila: Red star. 0.2 d. N and 3.2 d. f M11.
43) T Lyra: Red star, 0.7d W., 1.8 d S.  Mag. 7.5 to 9.1.
44) Garnet Star: In Cephus.  A red star.
45) WZ Cass:  A red star.  Mag 7.4-10.0 every 186 days.  From B Cass. go 1.0 d prec., 1.2 d. N.

Plus: Satellites, constellations, and meteors.