Welcome! My name is Janine. In this video we're going to discuss the celestial objects that you
can see in the constellation of Perseus. Perseus is a constellation that's fairly easy to find if you
know where to look. It's a constellation that can be seen in the late autumn to early winter months.
I use a variety of different objects in here to really help me identify this constellation.
As you're looking at this picture here is where Perseus is. If you need help with finding this
constellation go ahead and see that video. Perseus has a lot of different celestial objects
and that's going to be the focus of this video. So let's get started. Here we have a celestial map
of Perseus. As you can see from all the different areas that are colored here,
there are a variety of celestial objects. We have a star cluster right here. Right up here there are
different clusters scattered throughout Perseus. There's an awesome California Nebula down here
and lots to see. There's even some galaxies as well. So these are the different celestial objects that
we're going to focus on. It's not everything that's located in the boundaries of Perseus,
but these are the objects you should focus on when trying to find Perseus. If you have binoculars
or a telescope these are some areas you can focus in on. Up here is the Double Cluster of Perseus,
These are two open clusters that are right next to each other, there's the Alpha Persei Cluster, the
California Nebula down here, this is another open cluster Messier 34, and here we have a planetary
nebula called the Little Dumbbell Nebula. So let's go ahead and take a closer look at each of these.
Let's begin by looking at the star clusters of Perseus. The first one is called the Double
Cluster and it's classified as NGC 869 and 884. These two clusters are fairly close to each other.
They're several hundred light years apart, but they're estimated to be seven thousand light years
from Earth. Each star cluster has a little over a hundred stars. These two clusters are
really easy to see if you have a pair of binoculars, a small telescope, or if you
happen to have an area that has very dark skies. It's possible you may be able to see
this with the naked eye. Next we have the Alpha Persei Cluster. This is an open star cluster
that contains some several bright blue stars. One is the alpha star of this constellation
called Mirfak. If you want to learn more about that particular star go ahead and see that video.
This star cluster is the one that I use the most to help me find Perseus. The pattern
of Perseus is not extremely obvious, so what I tend to focus on is this cluster of stars
that kind of stands out to me within this star pattern. So try to find the Alpha Persei Star
Cluster. If we were to look exactly where it is in the pattern, it's kind of at the center
of this particular area. If we were to look at an actual picture, the Alpha Persei Cluster
is located right here. Here is also the double cluster that I spoke about previously.
Our final cluster, right here, is Messier 34. So let's take a closer look at that one.
This is an open star cluster that's estimated to be 1,500 light years away. It has a visual magnitude
of about 5.5, so you should be able to see it with the naked eye if you have some really dark skies.
If you live in an area with lots of light pollution this may be challenging to see.
This star cluster is estimated to be 200 to 250 million years old and contains about 400 stars.
This here across is about seven light years as well in terms of radius. So the total
would be 14 light years across. These are the different star clusters that you can try to find
either using magnification or if you have dark skies which I will always encourage you to find.
See if you can see these different star clusters. We'll take a look at the nebulae that exists
within the boundaries of Perseus. These are challenging to see because they wouldn't really
necessarily be visible unless you have the proper equipment to see it; which usually means a camera
that can take long exposure photographs. So here we have the pattern of Perseus and there are there is
one particular nebula that does stand out. It's located in this region right here. That is the
California Nebula which we'll talk about next but i'm going to remove the the star pattern. Right
here is where you can see a little bit of this particular nebula so let's take a closer look. NGC
1499, which is also commonly called the California Nebula, is an emission nebula estimated to be 1,000
light years away. Since it's an emission nebula this makes it really difficult to see because it's
not very bright. The reason that we can see it here is because this photograph was taken over a
period of a few hours in which the gases were able to show up on the camera. I love this next picture
here it's just very, very beautiful. Different colors were added to it to just
enhance the different features that we can see within this particular nebula. So this one may not
be one you would be able to see with the naked eye, but at least you know where in the general area
it is located with Perseus. Just to review- it's kind of in the foot. Like, if we would put
the pattern back- here this is the head, these are the arms of Perseus, and then these are his legs.
It would be in this one particular area that's located really close to the Pleiades Star Cluster.
Another nebula that's worth taking a look at is Messier 76. This one is called the
Little Dumbbell Nebula. This one is unique in the sense that it's a planetary nebula, so it's
a star that it's the end of its life. It's starting to throw off its outer layers.
This particular nebula, not to be confused with the Dumbbell Nebula, this one is the Little Dumbbell
Nebula. It's estimated to be 2,500 light years away and it's located in this area of Perseus. So
if you remember where the double double cluster is- I don't know why I said double double.
The Double Cluster is located right here. This is where the Little Dumbbell Nebula would be as
well. Another nebula to look at is called NGC 1333. This is a reflection nebula and it's estimated to
be 1,000 light years away. So this is where it would be located within that particular constellation.
Another one to take a look at is something called the Perseus Molecular Cloud. This is a giant
stellar nursery that's estimated to be 600 light years away from our own solar system.
It's not very bright and it's best seen in the infrared wavelengths. So we're going to take a
closer look at what that looks like. So here is right where the Perseus Cloud is. This is where
we're going to zoom in. So this right here is the California Nebula, this here is the
Perseus Molecular Cloud, down here are the Pleiades. So that kind of gives you perspective as to where
this particular object is. When we zoom in here, this is the California Nebula for reference,
but the Perseus Molecular Cloud is this whole region right here. I could probably make a
whole video about this particular section of this constellation, this molecular cloud,
because there's so much here. So let's dive in a little bit.
Here is a picture that was taken by NASA and Caltech. This is primarily looking at it using
infrared wavelengths. If we were to identify what's here: you have NGC 1333, that's another
nebula that's right here; you also have different clusters right here that have different ages; and
then here is another star cluster that's kind of embedded within this cloud. This is called IC 348.
So these are the different types of nebulae that exist within Perseus.
Just keep in mind that it would be difficult to see these, because of the types of
nebulae they are. These photos that we're looking at were taken by the
best telescopes that exist out there. So it just gives us an idea of what exists within Perseus.
In the final portion of this video, we'll talk about the galaxies that exist within the
boundaries of Perseus. Here we have our celestial star map. This shows you where all the galaxies
are located, or at least a portion of them. Wherever you see a little red dot here on the screen, that
is what a galaxy is represented as. Some of these other areas are the nebulae we talked about
and the star clusters. So let's take a deeper dive into some of the galaxies that exist here. NGC 1023
is a barred lenticular galaxy's that's estimated to be between 30 to 64 million light years away.
It is located in this region of Perseus. Next we have NGC 1260. This is another spiral galaxy
estimated to be 250 million light years away so much further than the previous one. It's
located in this general region of Perseus. Next we have NGC 1275 and this is also called Perseus A.
It's estimated to be 237 million light years away. In fact, we're actually looking at two galaxies.
Here the first galaxy is the one that you're seeing in the front and hat's the spiral galaxy.
Behind that is actually a larger elliptical galaxy. So when we're looking at this we're
looking at two that are situated with one in front of the other. This is actually part
of something larger called the Perseus Cluster and this is a collection of thousands of galaxies.
You can see many of them here throughout this photo and it's located in this region of Perseus.
So this was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, so you're not likely to see this particular
object if you have a an amateur type a telescope. However, if you were to look in this region and we
had a mega telescope, that is where you would find the Perseus Cluster. So those are all the different
galaxies that exist. One I'm going to talk about next week is called the Singing Black Hole,
so stay tuned next week for that particular video as we talk about how black holes can sing.
We've come to the end of our video about Perseus and all the cool celestial objects
that are situated within the boundaries of this constellation. So, let's review some things about
this constellation: how to find it and what is located inside of it. Perseus is represented as a
greek hero and it's best seen in autumn and winter months. It's classified as a seasonal constellation.
The best way to find it is to use Cassiopeia and Andromeda. You can also look for some of
the star clusters like right here. You can't see the double cluster, but it's right up there
and those are the ones you want to look for. There's also another one right there but I really
use the Alpha Persei Cluster to find help me find this constellation because to me the pattern
of this constellation does not stand out to me. It's really the star clusters that I use to help
me find it. There are lots of celestial objects to try to hunt for. There's the double cluster and the
Alpha Persei Cluster that I just mentioned. There's a lot of different nebulae and galaxies that exist
within Perseus so these are some of the ones we highlighted. I definitely recommend you trying to
find this one as well as the Double Cluster and Messier 34. Some of these other nebulae would be
difficult to see because of the type of nebulae that they are. So I wish
you luck in trying to find some of these cool celestial objects. Even if we are unable to
see some of them, we still know that they're there and I still think that's a pretty cool thing.
Remember that it takes time, patience, and practice when viewing the stars and learning how to find
the different constellations. Feel free to leave some feedback or comments. Let me know
what you think, or if you've ever seen any of these objects before. I wish you luck and keep looking up!