AAQ Visual Observing Section

Selected Deep Sky Objects In Taurus

This month I thought we could tour through another of the ancient constellations of the Zodiac – Taurus. A prominent summer constellation rising in the northeast, it is famous for two of the most spectacular naked eye open clusters - the Pleiades and the Hyades. My apologies if you find any mistakes in the details of the listed objects below – both work and the weather conspired to stop me double checking their accuracy! The comments below are based on observations made with a 150mm f8 refractor.

Struve 495 (04h 7.7m RA, +15° 10' Dec) This magnitude six primary has a much fainter close companion that is just visible with 120x.

Not far from here at 04h 05.3m RA, +17° 25' Dec, is an orange primary with an even fainter and closer companion that needs 160x to see. A good test of your telescope and observing conditions!

Tau (94) Tauri (04h 44m RA, +23° 00' Dec) This very pretty double consisting of a yellow primary and blue secondary is easily split with 40x.

68 Tauri (04h 25.0m RA, +18° 00' Dec) While I was unable to split this pair, close nearby is an attractive unequal double that is easily seen with 40x.

30 Tauri (03h 48.3m RA, +11° 09' Dec) Look for the pretty blue/green secondary star colour of this pair that is easily split with 120x.

88 Tauri (04h 36m RA, +10° 02' Dec) Using 40x you will find a background starfield highlighting this double.

Near 45 Tauri is a wide pair (04h 15.1m RA, +06° 02' Dec) of similar magnitude visible with 40x. The interesting feature of this double is the nearby line of three stars running parallel with the pair.

10 Tauri (03h 35.4m RA, +00° 30' Dec) Use 120x and you should find in the same field of view as 10 Tauri, a fainter double. A very attractive feature when viewed together.

M1 – Crab Nebula (05h 34.5m RA, +22° 01' Dec) You will find the first object listed in Messier’s famous catalogue as a small hazy patch set amongst background stars. I found that despite using both Ultra High Contrast and Deep Sky filters, no noticeable improvement in the image occurred. What are your thoughts – I feel the Helix Nebula in Aquarius that we covered in last month’s report is a superior visual object. Whilst there, checkout the nearby double which is almost in the same field of view with 120x. Both stars are of similar magnitude.

M45 - The Pleiades (03h 47.0m RA, +23° 07' Dec) Try to see the nebulosity surrounding the brighter stars in this group. I found that by sweeping slowly back and forth right across and beyond the cluster it was easy to observe the faint glow around members of the “Seven Sisters”. A Deep Sky filter enhanced the view, but I found it to be plainly visible even when unfiltered. While looking for nebulosity, I successfully tried a UHC filter on Aldebaran and nearby members of the Hyades group. See what you can find, I thought it was more subtle than the Pleiades nebulosity.

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