latinized bayer designation
- How to find and observe NGC457 (TOTS#3) (eyesonthesky.com)
NGC 457 is an open cluster within our own Milky Way galaxy. It is over 7,900 light years from Earth, so the photons from it reaching your eye in a telescope left that cluster about the time copper was first being used in the Middle East. The estimated age is about 21 million years, making it one of the younger star clusters in our galaxy. Here is how to locate it.
- Menkib (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
Perseus (the Hero) may be the champion not only of Andromeda but also of unnamed stars as well. The top two, Mirfak (Alpha) and Algol (Beta) have proper names, and then the list stops until we arrive at number 10, a fourth magnitude star called “Atik” and Bayer’s “Omicron” star. Fainter yet is number 12 in brightness, mid-fourth magnitude Menkib (Bayer’s “Xi”).
