Comments on: Prepublication Preview

By: ER

ER — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 05:08:06 +0000

Its nothing original.

Its essentially a rehash of my very first article, which was published in 1995! I think it was a good idea (and my publisher agrees) that never caught on, and deserved to be reintroduced. Eight years after I first published, several professional astronomers essentially suggested the same idea but not much came of it. But I believe the idea is still valid and deserves to be pursued.

Hopefully, it will inspire some researcher to design a search program based on the concept.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 21:21:11 +0000

Stellar associations (Often called O-B Associations are technically open clusters, although they are now more or less gravitationally dispersed) but they are characterized by young, massive, hot and bright stars of very young age. These are interesting objects in their own right. Like many other astrophysical types, they are characterized more by their appearance than by their intrinsic properties. Here is an excellent discussion of them.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1387647320300269#:~:text=OB%20associations%20are%20gravitationally%20unbound,over%20time%20they%20should%20disperse.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 20:51:53 +0000

a 4″ f/4 rich-field Edmunds Astroscan reflector, and decided to try it out on the first clear night. I’d only owned an overpowered 2″ department store refractor prior to that. I was out in the middle of a golf course set up on foot-deep snow and decided to check out one of my favorite objects, M35 in Gemini, which I had visited previously many times in 7×50 binoculars. At about 16x, it was perfectly framed in the field–a truly glorious sight!

After soaking it all in for a few minutes I noticed off to one corner, near the edge of the cluster, a little fuzzy spot. Upon closer inspection I could see it was ANOTHER open cluster, barely resolved (I was to later learn it was NGC 2158) a deep background object visible through M35.

I’ve had bigger and better ‘scopes since, and seen many beautiful things, but this time my little reflector gave me the thrill of a lifetime. It was like I had discovered this object, like I was the only human being who had ever glimpsed it, and recognized it for what it was. Its the thrill of discovery.

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star’d at the Pacific—and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

It was an unforgettable experience, one which only an astronomer can really understand. I realize this image was acquired through an advanced modern telescope, but this is how I remember the experience:

By: RobVG

RobVG — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:45:43 +0000

I was going to say don’t discount associations.

When I first got into Astronomy, I used an old pair of Palomar binoculars strapped to a rickety camera tripod. I spent a lot of time during the first cold winter nights gazing upon the Alpha Persei “Association”. It is an area of space that makes you feel like you’re “out there”, almost 3D.

I looked it up and Astronomy magazine has upgraded it to an OC. Either way, it’s a wonderful place to hang out.