Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia is marked by its W-shape in the sky, with stars ranging from magnitude 2 to 3.5
marking each turn in the W. Like Ursa Major Cassiopeia is circumpolar and can be
seen all year round from northern latitudes.
Cassiopeia lies in the Milky Way, so many objects like nebulae (clouds of gas and dust) and star
clusters lie within it. Scanning Cassiopeia with binoculars will reveal many of
them though not the nebulae.
Using a telescope is even more revealing. The Open Cluster M103 is quite easy to
find as are the double stars, try locating M52 by using the star hoping
technique. The objects listed below show up well in a 6" telescope though
some are quite small or sparsely populated as in the case of M103.
| Telescopic Objects | Main Stars | ||||||
| Object | Magnitude | Comments | Name | Magnitude | Distance L/Y | Comments | |
| M52 | 6.9 | Open cluster 100+ stars | g | 2.2 | 780 | Variable star between 1.6 and 3.2 | |
| M103 | 7.4 | Open cluster 25 stars | a Shedir | 2.2 | 120 | ||
| NGC 663 | 7.1 | Open cluster 80 stars | b Chaph | 2.2 | 42 | ||
| NGC 457 | 6.4 | Open cluster 80 stars | d Ruchbah | 2.6 | 62 | ||
| e Segin | 3.4 | 520 | |||||
| Multiple Stars | |||||||
| Name | Magnitude / Separation" | Distance L/Y | |||||
| h | 3.4 & 7.5 / 12.2" | 480 | |||||
| i | 4.6 & 6.8 / 2.4" | 840 | |||||
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