![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1. The Meissa Cluster <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\nRecommended equipment: 10×50<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen you look at Orion\u2019s \u2018head\u2019 through binoculars, you can immediately see why it looks distinctly fuzzy to the naked eye: it is a small cluster of stars. The dozen or so stars that you can resolve are dominated by the brilliant white mag. +3.5 Meissa (Lambda (\u03bb) Orionis). The other two bright stars in the field of view are the sapphire-blue mag. +4.4 Phi1<\/sup>(\u03c61) Orionis and deep-yellow mag. +4.1 Phi2<\/sup>(\u03c62) Orionis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n2. The Christmas Tree Cluster<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\nRecommended equipment: 10×50 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe seasonally appropriate NGC 2264, the Christmas Tree Cluster, lies 6.5\u00b0 south of Alhena (Gamma (\u03b3) Geminorum), surrounding the slightly variable (mag. +4.6 to +4.7) distinctly blue star, S Monocerotis. S Mon is in the base of the narrow wedge of stars that form the inverted tree. There is a lot of interstellar dust in this region of the Milky Way, which is why there seems to be a paucity of faint stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. NGC 2244 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\nRecommended equipment: 10×50<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAbout 2\u00b0 east of mag. +4.4 Epsilon (\u03b5) Monocerotis, there is a narrow rectangular group of stars a bit less than 0.5\u00b0 long that is quite difficult to identify as a distinct cluster; it looks more like a slightly denser accumulation in the Milky Way. You should see about a dozen stars but, unless you have exceptional skies, don\u2019t expect to detect the surrounding glow of the Rosette Nebula that gave birth to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. NGC 2301 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\nRecommended equipment: 15×70<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOur next cluster can be difficult to find, but it\u2019s worth the effort. You\u2019ll find it 5\u00b0 west of mag. +4.1 Delta (\u03b4) Monocerotis. It has been named \u2018Hagrid\u2019s Dragon\u2019 but it looks more like a little T-junction of 8th- and 9th-magnitude stars. It covers a little more than 10 arcminutes and appears as a few brighter stars against the slightly mottled glow of the 40 or so fainter suns that comprise the cluster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. The Skinny Prince<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\nRecommended equipment: 10×50<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAbout 2.5\u00b0 east of mag. +0.5 Procyon (Alpha (\u03b1) Canis Minoris), find five 6th(ish)-magnitude stars in the shape of a narrow \u2018house\u2019, reminiscent of Cepheus. There are some lovely colours here, especially the ruddy semi-regular variable BC CMi (mag. +6.14 to +6.42, with a period of about 35 days). It\u2019s worth scanning the wider area to see what other colourful star fields you can find. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. 14 CMi<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\nRecommended equipment: 15×70<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nYour scan around the Skinny Prince probably included mag. +5.3 14 Canis Minoris. This deserves a closer look, ideally using larger binoculars. It is a triple star, with two much fainter companions. The brighter one (mag. +9.4) lies 102 arcseconds to the east; the other (mag. +9.8) is 137 arcseconds to the southeast of 14 CMi. Can you detect any colour difference between the two fainter stars?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This month, we turn at a T-junction, pop into a house and admire the Christmas Tree<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":38177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"54","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"54","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_54-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_54-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"December-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"December-2022","purple_external_id":"December-2022-54-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"December-2022-54-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086559||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086559||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.211","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.211","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.211","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.211","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d.jpg",2048,1189,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-300x174.jpg",300,174,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-768x446.jpg",768,446,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-1024x595.jpg",800,465,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-1536x892.jpg",1536,892,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d.jpg",2048,1189,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This month, we turn at a T-junction, pop into a house and admire the Christmas Tree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38178"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38858,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38178\/revisions\/38858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
When you look at Orion\u2019s \u2018head\u2019 through binoculars, you can immediately see why it looks distinctly fuzzy to the naked eye: it is a small cluster of stars. The dozen or so stars that you can resolve are dominated by the brilliant white mag. +3.5 Meissa (Lambda (\u03bb) Orionis). The other two bright stars in the field of view are the sapphire-blue mag. +4.4 Phi1<\/sup>(\u03c61) Orionis and deep-yellow mag. +4.1 Phi2<\/sup>(\u03c62) Orionis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recommended equipment: 10×50 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The seasonally appropriate NGC 2264, the Christmas Tree Cluster, lies 6.5\u00b0 south of Alhena (Gamma (\u03b3) Geminorum), surrounding the slightly variable (mag. +4.6 to +4.7) distinctly blue star, S Monocerotis. S Mon is in the base of the narrow wedge of stars that form the inverted tree. There is a lot of interstellar dust in this region of the Milky Way, which is why there seems to be a paucity of faint stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recommended equipment: 10×50<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n About 2\u00b0 east of mag. +4.4 Epsilon (\u03b5) Monocerotis, there is a narrow rectangular group of stars a bit less than 0.5\u00b0 long that is quite difficult to identify as a distinct cluster; it looks more like a slightly denser accumulation in the Milky Way. You should see about a dozen stars but, unless you have exceptional skies, don\u2019t expect to detect the surrounding glow of the Rosette Nebula that gave birth to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recommended equipment: 15×70<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our next cluster can be difficult to find, but it\u2019s worth the effort. You\u2019ll find it 5\u00b0 west of mag. +4.1 Delta (\u03b4) Monocerotis. It has been named \u2018Hagrid\u2019s Dragon\u2019 but it looks more like a little T-junction of 8th- and 9th-magnitude stars. It covers a little more than 10 arcminutes and appears as a few brighter stars against the slightly mottled glow of the 40 or so fainter suns that comprise the cluster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recommended equipment: 10×50<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n About 2.5\u00b0 east of mag. +0.5 Procyon (Alpha (\u03b1) Canis Minoris), find five 6th(ish)-magnitude stars in the shape of a narrow \u2018house\u2019, reminiscent of Cepheus. There are some lovely colours here, especially the ruddy semi-regular variable BC CMi (mag. +6.14 to +6.42, with a period of about 35 days). It\u2019s worth scanning the wider area to see what other colourful star fields you can find. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recommended equipment: 15×70<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your scan around the Skinny Prince probably included mag. +5.3 14 Canis Minoris. This deserves a closer look, ideally using larger binoculars. It is a triple star, with two much fainter companions. The brighter one (mag. +9.4) lies 102 arcseconds to the east; the other (mag. +9.8) is 137 arcseconds to the southeast of 14 CMi. Can you detect any colour difference between the two fainter stars?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This month, we turn at a T-junction, pop into a house and admire the Christmas Tree<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":38177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"54","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"54","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_54-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_54-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"December-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"December-2022","purple_external_id":"December-2022-54-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"December-2022-54-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086559||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086559||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.211","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.211","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.211","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.211","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d.jpg",2048,1189,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-300x174.jpg",300,174,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-768x446.jpg",768,446,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-1024x595.jpg",800,465,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d-1536x892.jpg",1536,892,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/11\/2432ae5b-fc46-44f5-a336-f135510c172d.jpg",2048,1189,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This month, we turn at a T-junction, pop into a house and admire the Christmas Tree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38178"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38858,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38178\/revisions\/38858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. The Christmas Tree Cluster<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
3. NGC 2244 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
4. NGC 2301 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
5. The Skinny Prince<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
6. 14 CMi<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n