clockwise around Whidbey Island
northbound on State Route 9
- How to find and observe NGC663 (TOTS#4) (eyesonthesky.com)
NGC 663 is an open cluster within our own Milky Way galaxy. It is over 6,800 light years from Earth, so the photons from it reaching your eye in a telescope left that cluster about the time circular ditches - such as the Goseck Circle - were being dug as solar observatories in the 5th millenium BCE. NGC 663 is stil considered a young open cluster, with an estimated age around 20 million years. Here is how to locate it.
southbound on State Route 9
- Washington State Route 20 (Wikipedia)
State Route 20 (SR 20), also known as the North Cascades Highway, is a state highway that traverses the U.S. state of Washington. It is the state’s longest highway, traveling 436 miles (702 km) across the northern areas of Washington, from U.S. Route 101 (US 101) at Discovery Bay on the Olympic Peninsula to US 2 near the Idaho state border in Newport. The highway travels across Whidbey Island, North Cascades National Park, the Okanagan Highland, the Kettle River Range, and the Selkirk Mountains. SR 20 connects several major north–south state highways, including Interstate 5 (I-5) in Burlington, US 97 through the Okanogan–Omak area, SR 21 in Republic, and US 395 from Kettle Falls to Colville.
