In this episode of Star Hopping with Kissimmee Park Observatory, we'll look at the Canes
Venatici region, and show you how to find these beautiful deep sky objects:
Messier 94 NGC 5033
And the Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631
Alright, Let's Go Star Hopping!
<Intro Theme>
Hey Hello Hi and welcome to Episode 49 of Star Hopping with Kissimmee Park Observatory!
I'm Dave Hearn, and I'm on pins and needles to be your host.
In this series of programs we'll show you the most beautiful sights in the night sky,
and explain exactly how to find them with your binoculars or telescope.
Oh we're so close to our big episode 50 coming in two weeks.
I can't believe that we've completed that many episodes already!
We're going to celebrate a little and look back at our joint experience that we've had
in the last year and a half of Star Hopping.
Also, I have some exciting announcements of some big changes coming to Star Hopping.
Don't worry they're all good.
So I'll fill you in on all that next time, so make sure that you subscribe here on our
YouTube channel or on iTunes if you're a podcast listener.
Onto this week's episode.
So I've been mentioning a bit on social media that we are in galaxy hunting mode again,
this time of year.
The constellations of Ursa Major, Canes Venatici, Leo, and Coma Berenices are loaded with galaxies.
And we've seen a lot of them already in Star Hopping, but there are still three really
good ones that I haven't done before here so I'm excited to show them to you.
So will be starting off with the easiest one, a big and bright galaxy that even those of
you with smaller telescopes should have no problem locating.
We'll talk about it right after this break; Stay Tuned.
Star Hopping Target #1
Messier 94 is a massive galaxy right in the middle of the constellation of Canes Venatici.
With a visual magnitude of 8.2, Messier 94 is an impressive object.
It has a brilliant core, brightening to a hazy central nucleus and it's surrounded
by an elongated 14 arc minute disk.
A series of knots on the east and southeast sides give you an inkling of a spiral pattern.
It has tightly wound spiral arms, making it appear nearly spherical in a small telescope.
The good news is that very close by, we have the bright, second magnitude star Cor Caroli,
that we can use as our home base for all of the star hops tonight.
So Let's start our galaxy hunt.
Starting at the bright Cor Caroli, move 2 1/2 degrees straight up to 6th magnitude 10
Canum Venaticorum.
Now make a hard left turn, and move the same distance you just did; 2 1/2 degrees, directly
to the left.
You should see the bright glow of Messier 94 moving into your wide field eyepiece.
In a smaller telescope, M 94 will appear like a fuzzy star, but at magnitude 8.2 it would
definitely show up in a 3 inch telescope, or even your finderscope.
M 94 lies about 16 million light years distant, has a diameter of approximately 33,000 light-years.
We'll check out another large but a little fainter galaxy right in the neighborhood,
right after this message.
Star Hopping
Target #2
NGC 5033 is a beautiful spiral galaxy, just south of our home base star Cor Caroli.
On our way to 5033, we'll pass another decent galaxy, NGC 5005, a 9th magnitude spiral.
So NGC 5033 is a magnitude 10.8 spiral galaxy.
It has a length of 11 arc minutes, so its relatively large size and reasonable surface
brightness make it an nice object that can be viewed and imaged by amateur astronomers.
Hmmm, this may be a future target for me at the Observatory!
So let's locate NGC 5033.
We'll start again at bright Cor Caroli.
Move about 3 degrees to the lower right to fifth magnitude 14 Canum Venaticorum.
Now move another 2 degrees to the left to find a six magnitude star.
Now move one degree straight down and slightly right to another 6th magnitude star.
As you pass about half the distance you may find NGC 5005 that we mentioned earlier.
If you find it, take note of the brightness - 5033 is a little fainter.
Now move 1/4 degree to the lower right and you should see the soft glow of NGC 5033 moving
into your wide field eyepiece.
Our current target has a very bright nucleus and a relatively faint disk.
In astrophotos, significant warping is visible in the southern half of the disk.
NGC 5033 is a sprawling spiral galaxy with thick arms.
This island universe is estimated to be 37 million light years away.
So as usual, I've saved the best for last.
A massive 17 minutes of arc long galaxy, with a close companion.
We'll find them, right after this break.
Star Hopping Target #3
The Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631, is a huge edge-on spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici.
The galaxy is slightly distorted due to gravitational interaction with its companion galaxy, NGC
4627, seen in the image here from KPO.
The slightly distorted wedge shape gives NGC 4631 the appearance of a large "fin" that
makes it look like a herring or a whale.
This one was named well; I can definitely see the whale shape.
So let's go on a whale hunt.
Let's start again at bright Cor Caroli.
Move about 1 1/2 degrees to the upper right, to 5th magnitude DT Canum Venaticorum.
Now move a little over 2 1/2 degrees to the upper right, to 6th magnitude AX Canum Venaticorum.
Now move about the same distance to the upper right a fifth magnitude star with a close
6th mag companion.
Now move 1 degree straight down, and you will see the large slash of light that is the Whale
Galaxy, moving into your wide field eyepiece.
Isn't this thing a monster?
I was very surprised when I was imaging it at the Observatory, when the first sub frame
came up on the screen.
The Whale Galaxy is an enormous spiral galaxy seen edge-on.
It has a visual magnitude of 9.8, so it's decently bright, and it spans a massive 17
minutes of arc, over half the diameter of the full moon.
Well another 3 great galaxy targets for our 49th episode of Star Hopping.
We started out with bright Messier 94, found just to the upper left of our home base Star
Cor Caroli.
Then we searched out the fainter NGC 5033, and it's close companion NGC 5005.
That was your challenge object for this week.
Finally we finished up with the massive Whale Galaxy, NGC 4631.
Make sure to stay tuned for our celebration episode 50 coming in two weeks, from Star
Hopping.
We'll have some really exciting announcements to share with you at that time; it's going
to be a great year.
So that does it for this week's episode.
You can find the show notes on our website at kpobservatory.org/SH049, where you can
comment and leave any questions that you may have.
You can also contact me personally on Twitter @StarHoppingMan, where I'd love to help
you with any astronomy or observing questions.
So feel free to reach out with your questions - I'm here to help.
Well thank you very much for joining me here, and I'll see you next time with more Star
Hopping tips and tricks.
I'm Cassie, and I hope you've enjoyed star hopping around the Milky Way.
We'll continue to bring you these video astronomy tutorials every week on Thursday, and in their
podcast format on Fridays.
They will be designed to help you find deep sky objects that are up in the sky at the
time we post them on the Internet.
The reason we create these video and podcasts is to help beginning amateur astronomers learn
the sky and get more enjoyment out of their telescopes and astronomy in general.
If you have any requests or suggestions of potential targets in the night sky that you
would like to see us present, just let us know down in the comment section below, or
on our website blog.
Don't miss our Field Notes for this episode, basically the script of the show, with all
the images and start charts we use for our star hopping activities.
You can get a free copy for the current episode when you sign up for our Newsletter.
If this is the first time you're checking out Star Hopping, and if you found this video
useful, please consider Subscribing to our Channel by clicking the Big Yellow Button
down there, click the Thumbs Up on the video, and please share this tutorial out to your
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Also, as I just mentioned, please feel free to leave any question or comment below, and
we will be sure to respond quickly.
Also, please follow KPO on Facebook, where we post all of our astrophotos and keep everyone
informed about upcoming astronomical events.
We'd love to hear from you to discuss all this great stuff up in the sky.
All the links to these places including our website StarHopping.org, can be found below
in the Episode Notes as well.
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Well thanks again for watching, and we'll see you next time on Star Hopping.
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