Answers to M39 Anniversary Scavenger Hunt
Did you participate in our Scavenger Hunt? Do you think you know the answers?
Here they are, week by week!
Week 1:
Week 1's target was between Cepheus and Cassiopeia (the king and the queen).
Very close by, someone had blown a bubble: this is the Bubble Nebula, slightly over 1/2 degree away.
It is in the Zone of Avoidance (first called the "Zone of Few Nebulae" in an 1878 paper by English astronomer Richard Proctor). The term Zone of Avoidance refers to the band of the Milky Way, which astronomers could not see through. They avoided it, in order to look into deep space.
Week 2's answer: The open cluster M52.
Week 2:
Week 2's, here are a few of the clues.
- Clue:
- Its constellation gained notorious fame,
- When the gods said vanity became her name
- Answer:
- Queen Cassiopeia bragged about her beauty, and upset the gods.
- Clue:
- Its contrasting members only number two,
- Quite near a line, gracing the W.
- Answer:
- The object is very near the line of Cassiopeia's W shape.
- Clue:
- At a distance of a mere 19 light years,
- It ranks seventh in family of its Greek peers.
- Answer:
- Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet.
Week 2's answer: the beautiful double star Eta Cassiopeia.
Week 3:
Week 3's we star hopped to several objects, before finding our ultimate target. Here are some clues:
- Clue:
- Move nine point five more
- On angle 226, then
- Try to filter an apple core
- In the Little Fox's den.
- Answer:
- The little fox is the constellation Vulpecula.
- The Apple Core shape in the Dumbbell Nebula is seen using an Orion
- Ultrablock filter.
Week 3's answer: the Dumbbell Nebula.
Week 4:
For Week 4 we continued star hopping to various targets on the way to our final destination. This is where we went:
- Clue:
- From M39 move 18.5 degrees
- And you'll find this giant star
- With naked eye ease.
- It's the last letter in the bird
- But with a magnitude of 3.8
- Its brighter than 150 suns
- Which makes it so great.
- Answer:
- This is Zeta Cygni, the tip of Cygnus' eastern wing. The star is 18 solar radii and 97 light years distant.
- Clue:
- Move now to diamond asterism
- In an animal of the sea
- That contains a nice binary star
- Named by an astronomer, most jokingly.
- Answer:
- The animal of the sea is the dolphin, Delphinus
- The binary star is Rotanev, beta Delphini. The astronomer Niccolo Cacciatore, as a practical joke, named it Latinized family name of Venator in reverse!
- Clue:
- This constellation has two ancient clusters
- One by the tail, one by the nose
- But these beauties light won't give any luster
- Unless a telescope shows the glows.
- Answer:
- The two clusters are globular clusters NGC 6934 (magnitude 9.75) and NGC 7006 (magnitude 11.5 and a staggering 185,000 light years distant!).
- Clue:
- Now head toward the border
- Where two celestial equines meet
- And bright example of what you just saw
- Is our destination, and a treat!
- Answer:
- Knowing we just found two globular clusters, it is easy to find a bright
- globular cluster near the boundary of the great horse Pegasus, and
- Equuleus, which is Latin for the Little Horse.
The answer to Week 4's hunt: the great globular cluster M15, at the border of the two celestial horses!
Did you get these?
