Fun asterisms and clusters for the young.

[cotterless45]

These always go well and help both young and old use their eyes:

NGC457 in Ursa Major; the Owl or ET cluster....x40

NGC1502 at the end of Kemble's Casade ( equidistant top stars of Cassiopeia and go left for this distance, whole cascade will appear in the finder) , The Jolly Roger; 2 eyes and the bones! x100

NGC6910 just above Sadir in the middle of the cross of Cygnus; The Rocking Horse cluster, tiny horse x80.

NGC2169 in the crook of Orion's raised arm, The 37 cluster, usually upside down , but the numbers therex40.

Brocci's, The Coathanger, bottom corner right angled triangle Albireo/top star of Sagitta.

Seeing as these are bright, they're usually good with the Moon and kids playing around with torches,

Nick.

[JamesF]

Thank you. I shall definitely try some of these that I wasn't aware of.

The Coathanger is a naked eye object here (though it's obviously not possible to see the actual asterism shape). I usually tell people to find it by drawing a line between Vega and Altair. The Coathanger is on that line, three fifths of the way from Vega towards Altair.

James

[earth titan]

Nice list.

I've done the coathanger and its fab, but not the others. May try next time I get clear skies.

[mdstuart]

There is a DICE face just to the left of Cephas but the stars are about mag 10..

I am not sure exactly where it was but I am sure you could spot it on stellarium.

Mark

[cotterless45]

I keep meeting a small semicircle of evenly seperated similar bright stars. I'll pin 'em down one night, at the moment it's "hello, it's there again!".

Nick.

[NGC 1502]

NGC457 in Ursa Major; the Owl or ET cluster....x40

The ET cluster is a favourite at my clubs public events, good for adults as it is a genuine cluster (I think the brightest member, Phi Cass, is a foreground star) and great for the kids who come up with alternative names like "crocodile". ( It's actually in Cassiopea , tough to find in Ursa Major )

Regards, Ed.

[Moonshane]

I have never actually looked for it but the Cheshire Cat in Auriga sounds interesting http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/56562-cheshire-cat-asterism/

[Dipper]

I always liked watching the stars just right of Coma Berenices' main three stars. Although Wikipedia lists it as "Coma Star Cluster" I always thought it's an asterism as for me it forms some kind of a pattern that's associated more with a typical asterism. Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coma_Star_Cluster

[acey]

"Asterism" is usually taken to mean stars that look physically connected but aren't really (it's just a line of sight effect) while "cluster" is a gravitationally bound collection of stars - hence it's the "Coma star cluster" rather than "Coma asterism". There are also "moving groups" that are moving together through space, for example the Ursa Major moving group which contains most of the stars of the Plough.

http://en.wikipedia....or_Moving_Group

The NGC contains numerous objects that were thought by their discoverers to be clusters (or nebulae) but are in fact asterisms (or in some cases just double or even single stars). An example is NGC 7134, the Glum Cyclops (21h 48m 56.2s; -12⁰ 58' 23"), discovered by Peters in 1860 using a 13.5" scope. He found it "pretty faint, very small".