Lucky Sevens Weekend Observing
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Lydia
Site Admin
Posted:
Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:50 pm
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Posts: 610
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Lucky Sevens Weekend Observing
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Happy Weekend to all:
How about a 07-07-07 Observing List for those lucky enough to have clear skies.
The following observing list is brought to you by the Illustrious Amateur Astronomer Ms. Becky Ramotosky who observes from New Mexico.
She is well known and loved by many in the Houston area astronomy community and is a member of J.S.C.A.S.
Becky's Lists are fun and exciting because they usually follow a theme.
**** LL
Lucky 7-7-07 Observing List
For many the number seven is a symbol of luck and good fortune. Saturday is the 7th day of the seventh month of 2007 so it’s bound to be luckier than luck itself.
Join me in a sevenfold quest to track down a few notable objects in the
sky that have a relationship (albeit vague and of little consequence) to
the number seven. Observing the objects below does not guarantee that
luck, fame and fortune will find you. Its only claim is that you will
find a few of the sky’s best targets.
Seven Dwarfs- Red, Brown and White ones. But not “Snow” White ones.
* If you have trouble rounding up your dwarfs, then hunt for stars like
our own Sun that will some day evolve into a dwarf of some type. But
you need to find 7!
Seven Seas- on the Moon of course.
Ursa Major has seven bright naked eye stars. (Okay so Alcor and Mizar
are two, but remember I warned you about vagueness in the beginning!)
The number of celestial objects in the solar system visible to the naked
eye — the Sun, the Moon and the five classical naked eye planets:
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Messier 7 M7 is a 3.3 magnitude open cluster in the constellation
Scorpius. Take this one seriously. It’s truly gorgeous and can be seen
naked eye, or with 7 power binoculars. 
Use a telescope for more pizazz. R.A. 17: 53.9 Dec. -34: 49
Herschel Object 7 H VII-7 Also known as NGC 6520 it’s an 8.1
magnitude open cluster in Sagittarius. Take this one seriously too.
It’s near the dark nebula B86 and reminds me of a stellar mouse with a
dark mouse-hole passageway. R.A. 18h 0.3m Dec. -27 54
Uranus- the 7th planet.
Pleiades- the “Seven Sisters”
Seven is the neutral pH of water, so if you observe poor seeing as in
rain, mist or dew log it!
Easy Challenge:
Messier 77- An 8.9 magnitude galaxy in Cetus.
R.A. 02: 42.7 Dec. -00: 01
Brutal Challenge:
NGC 7, a 14th magnitude spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor.
Extra Credit:
If you know the name for the maximum mass of a white dwarf.
Hint- The first part of the name is a 13-letter word.
Just for fun:
Most Ladybugs have 7 spots. Ladybugs gather by the thousands around
white domes of observatories. This behavior is not quite understood,
but might be because they just like light colored buildings in general.
Becky Ramotowski
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