Faint Fuzzies

In the night sky, the vast majority of the objects you can see with the naked eye are stars, many of them larger and brighter than our own sun.

But, scattered here and there, you can find a few objects that are neither stars nor planets. These are faint objects, best seen in a dark country sky. Hey, that's just the way it is. We've polluted our urban skies to the point where only the brightest stars can be seen.

Here, then, is a brief tour of some of the most-prominent of these "faint fuzzies."

For all of these, it will help to have star charts, or a planetarium program on your phone/tablet. I'm not doing up charts for a blog post.

Mizar and Alcor
Okay, technically, it's not a star, per se—it's two stars. Mizar and Alcor, situated at the bend in the handle of the Big Dipper asterism, can be seen by most people with normal vision as a double star. The bright one is Mizar; the dimmer one is Alcor. Native Americans used to refer to this pair as the "horse and rider."

The Andromeda Galaxy
This is one of the most-distant objects the naked eye can pick out of the sky, at approximately 2.4-million light-years. It is located in the constellation Andromeda (nothing to do with the High Guard, or Captain Hercules), which itself is off the left 'shoulder' of the great Square of Pegasus.

In a dark sky, and using averted vision (looking slightly away from the object, to engage the more light-sensitive rods in our eyes), a fuzzy area up to a degree in diameter (about twice the width of the Full Moon) can be perceived. In binoculars, this object gently glows like a desk lamp. If nothing else, learning to point out Andromeda can make you a hero to your friends (or a total nerd; you have been warned).

The Double Cluster
Hanging in the polar sky, partway between with cosmic 'W' of Cassiopeia and the hydra-like form of Perseus, is the double cluster--two clusters of stars. With the naked eye, one perceives a fuzzy patch, about half the width of the Full Moon. In binoculars, some of the stars in each cluster begin to resolve, giving you a view of two piles of diamond chips, set upon crushed velvet.

The Centaurus Cluster
This is a great globular cluster of stars. Globulars orbit the galaxy; most of them are much further away. The Centaurus cluster shows as a fuzzy patch. In binoculars, it shows up as a larger, brighter fuzzy patch. The reason? It is composed of over a million stars, at a considerable distance.

The Pleiades
This open cluster sits just to the left (east) of the horns of Taurus (itself another open cluster, only closer to us, and less dense). Normally-sighted people can generally perceive six to eight stars in a compact grouping. Some will comment on its dipper-like appearance.

The Great Orion Nebula
This is a huge cloud of gas and dust, including many star-forming regions, in the constellation Orion. Orion itself is prominent in the winter and spring skies as a large X with three stars in the middle. Tracing down slightly from that point, one finds three more stars (the Dagger). One of those stars is fuzzy. It looks magnificent in binoculars or a telescope.

The Northern Coalsack
Thus far, each of the objects described can be detected from the light it emits. This one, on the other hand, can be detected for the light it blocks. The Northern Coalsack, in the Contellation Cygnus, is a large darkening in the middle of the gently-glowing band of the Milky Way.

The Milky Way
It's sad that only a fraction of the population today has seen the Milky Way. It's a grand spectacle in a dark sky; a band of luminescence that shines from pole to pole. It's our own galaxy, and the light you are seeing is from billions of stars, at distances to great for them to be resolved.

This pretty much concludes our tour of faint fuzzies. Next time you find yourself in a dark sky, try looking for a few of them.

-Bill