Libra and Serpens Caput - Downloadable article
The scales of justice and the serpent's head provide a nice balance of distant galaxies and globular clusters.
By
Tom Polakis —
Published:
March 3, 2009This downloadable article is from an Astronomy magazine 45-article series called "Celestial Portraits." The collection highlights all 88 constellations in the sky and explains how to observe each constellation's deep-sky targets. The articles feature star charts, stunning pictures, and constellation mythology. We've put together 11 digital packages. Each one contains four Celestial Portraits articles for you to purchase and download.
"Libra and Serpens Caput" is one of four articles included in Celestial Portraits Package 3.
With the balmier days — and nights — of late spring upon us, it's time to grab a telescope and get reacquainted with observing in comfort. By late evening, the galaxy fields of Virgo lie high in the southwest while the star clouds in Sagittarius and Scorpius begin to emerge along the eastern horizon. Sandwiched between these regions, which inspire such fervor among deep-sky observers, are two more-tranquil constellations: Libra and Serpens Caput. Yet these star patterns offer splendid observing targets that reflect their location, with a wide assortment of galaxies on the constellations' western sides and fairly typical Milky Way objects to the east. To read the complete article, purchase and download Celestial Portraits Package 3. |
Deep-sky objects in Libra and Serpens Caput
NGC 5728, Alpha Librae (Zubenelgenubi), NGC 5792, NGC 5812, Delta Librae, NGC 5878, NGC 5885, Palomar 5, NGC 5897, M5 (NGC 5904), NGC 5921, Merrill 2-1, NGC 5962, σ 1962, Seyfert's Sextet (NGCs 6027 and 6027A-E), NGC 6118 |
Package 3 contains the following Celestial Portraits articles
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