Orion’s Club District
Orion, the giant hunter of Greek mythology, rules our northwestern skies even into early autumn. Astride the celestial equator for all to see, the showcase constellation with the brilliant star pattern is a delight to the eye and a feast for the telescope.
Of course, Orion isn’t all gleam and glitter. The stars depicting the Hunter’s shield and club are much less conspicuous. Likewise, the telescopic objects atop his hourglass figure aren’t exactly award winners. In 50 years of dedicated deep sky sleuthing, I hadn’t observed any of them. Time to fix that! Last year, I decided to explore Orion’s eastern arm, all the way to the top of his big, brandished club.
As I’d be observing under a light-polluted suburban sky, I didn’t expect much joy. At minimum, I’d try for the open clusters plotted on charts 76 and 96 of the Uranometria 2000.0 Deep Sky Atlas (2nd edition, 2001). I employed my 25-cm f/6 Dobsonian reflector for the bulk of the work but occasionally used smaller scopes — even binoculars.
In the end, my backyard instruments delivered more than I anticipated. Grab your scope, whatever it may be, and join me for a stroll through Orion’s little-known Club District.
Pale powders
Starting at zero-magnitude Betelgeuse, Alpha (α) Orionis, I planned to sweep 3° northeastward to 4.1-magnitude Mu (μ) Orionis, then veer north-northeastward to 9.4-magnitude . Simple, right? Well, no, it wasn’t. The chart 96 as a starless circle. I reminded myself that the plots stars down to magnitude 9.7. The goes to magnitude 11, yet no dots appear inside its symbol for NGC 2141 (chart 204), either. Would I be able to detect this weak wonder through my 25-cm Dobsonian?
