1. Forum
  2. FSXNet
  3. FSX BOT

  • Stargazing News - February 13th, 2025

    From CJ@21:2/156 to All on Wed Feb 12 06:09:24 2025
    Thursday, February 13, 2025

    A Battle Cruiser in Orion's Shield (evening)

    At the end of Orion's western arm, a crooked, up-down string of six medium- bright stars form his shield, or a lion's skin. Interestingly, those stars are all designated as Pi1,2,3,4,5,6 Orionis. The open cluster designated NGC 1662 or Collinder 55 is located 1.6° to the WNW of Pi1 Orionis, the top star in the shield. The magnitude 6.4 cluster should be visible as a small patch in 10x50 binoculars. In any size of telescope, look for a tiny, diamond-shaped asterism flanked by an 11 arc-minutes-long row of blue and yellow stars aligned SE-NW. It resembles a bird riding an air current. In Sue French's Deep Sky Wonders (Firefly, 2011), she compares the pattern to the lights of a Klingon battle cruiser. No danger, though - it is 1,450 light-years away from us. Additional members of the cluster are spread over 20 arc-minutes of sky.

    (Data courtesy of Starry Night)
    --- SBBSecho 3.23-Linux
    * Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (21:2/156)