In this post I talk about a man who has inspired many to
take up the hobby of astronomy, (Sir) Patrick Moore was an icon, a self-taught
astronomer whose passion for the science shone through. I had the great
pleasure of meeting him when he gave a talk at a local venue, and it is a
moment I will always remember and look back on with great pride. I’ve met a
couple of “famous” people, Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen were high on the
list, but my encounter with (Sir) Patrick is the real high point. He was a very
warm and friendly man who clearly enjoyed meeting fellow astronomers.
He was giving a talk about the existence of extra-terrestrial
life, during the first half of the evening he said that he did believe that we
are not alone in the galaxy, but he did not believe that we have, as yet, been
visited by beings from other worlds. Throughout the first half, the talk was
illustrated with various “photographs” of extra-terrestrial craft, (Sir)
Patrick stated that he had no doubt at all that each one of the images was
either an outright fake or simply some mundane terrestrial object photographed
poorly.
After the interval (Sir) Patrick returned to the stage and
opened the floor to a Q&A session. Feeling brave I raised my hand and he
pointed to me, invited me to stand, and asked what my question was. It went
something like this; “Sir Patrick, considering the hundreds, if not thousands,
of photographs and “eyewitness” reports, do you think it’s possible that one or
more of those images could be a genuine extra-terrestrial vehicle?” (Sir)
Patrick paused momentarily, clearly contemplating the intelligence behind my
question, he then broke into a broad, mischievous grin, looked straight at me
and said; “Young man, have you ever seen an alien spacecraft?” I replied “No
Sir Patrick, I haven’t!” To this he replied, still smiling; “Then sit down and
shut up!” he then laughed and told me and the rest of the audience that he had
no doubt at all that there is no possible way that Earth has played host to
visitors from beyond our Solar System. Now this makes him sound like a
crotchety old curmudgeon who had nothing but contempt for my question. However,
the expression on his face gave a completely opposite view. There was humour
and warmth in his expression and the tone of his voice, no malice or disdain at
all. Other people I know who were fortunate enough to not only meet him but
spend a good amount of time with him tell of the exact same warm and welcoming
nature.
He was controversial and, from time to time, caused the
viewing masses to write to the BBC complaining that he’d expressed his opinion,
but, I feel that the Nation admired and respected him. He made astronomy
accessible to the masses, for many years the monthly instalment of The Sky at
Night was very much looked forward to.
Sir Patrick also shared his passion for astronomy with a
list, we do love a list you know.
Every amateur astronomer recognises the M11, M20 & M31
designations because this trio of deep sky objects are found on the list of 18th
century comet hunter Charles Messier.
M11 is the wild duck cluster in Scutum, M20 is the Triffid
Nebula in Sagittarius and M31 is the Andromeda Galaxy. But what if we replaced
the M with a C?
Would you recognise C11, C20 and C31? These three objects
are also well known, but perhaps not by these designations.
The C stands for Caldwell, or more precisely Caldwell-Moore,
the full name of Sir Patrick Moore. When he needed to place an identifying
letter by each for the numbered objects on his list he couldn’t use M because
it had already been taken, so he chose the next best thing.
In case you were wondering, C11 is the bubble nebula in
Cassiopeia, C20 is the North America Nebula in Cygnus and C31 is the Flaming
Star Nebula in Auriga.
Sir Patrick wrote his list in 1995 as a tour of deep sky
objects similar to Messier’s, but where Messier limited his list to objects
that can be observed from the latitude of Paris, Sir Patrick expanded his
candidates to those ranging from High northern latitudes to low southern
latitudes. This somewhat evens the score between Northern and Southern
hemisphere observers because 34 Caldwell objects can’t be observed from Paris’s
latitude and 5 others never rise more than 3° above the southern horizon there.
Included in this “can’t be observed from Paris” group are fantastic
objects such as the tarantula Nebula C103, the Coal Sack C99 and the two of the
best clusters in the sky, 47 Tucanae C106 and Omega Centauri C80.
The other difference is that where Messier listed objects
for comet hunters to avoid, (Sir) Patrick’s list was intended as a list of fine,
observable deep sky objects.
When the Caldwell Catalogue was first published in the
December 1995 issue of Sky and Telescope, some amateur astronomers weren’t at
all happy:
“How dare he!”
“Many of these objects have names!”
My reaction was a little different, why didn’t I think of
that? The Kalon Catalogue, now that has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
Whatever your opinion may be, the Caldwell Catalogue
contains 109 great Deep Sky objects to observe.
Regarding the object selection relative to Messier’s list,
Sir Patrick slightly reduced the numbers in certain categories while increasing
others. So, the number of star clusters, both open and globular, and galaxies was
reduced, but the number of nebulae was increased. Only four planetary nebulae
made Messier’s list, but Sir Patrick placed 13 in the Caldwell Catalogue. Likewise,
he increased the number of bright nebulae from 5 to 12.
Sir Patrick also distributed his objects more widely across
the sky. Sagittarius and Virgo, which have 15 and 11 Messier objects
respectively, have only one Caldwell object each. Perhaps he thought that most
of the great objects in those constellations were taken. In fact, you’ll find
more Messier objects per constellation than Caldwell objects. Cassiopeia,
Centaurus and Cygnus each contain six Caldwell objects, the most found in any
constellation. Fifty of the 88 constellations contain Caldwell objects, as
opposed to 34 that contain Messier objects.
Sir Patrick numbered the objects in his catalogue by
declination. He started in the most northern part of the sky with C1, an open
cluster in Cepheus, and ended near the south celestial pole with C109, a
planetary nebula in Chamaeleon.
Sir Patrick’s final stipulation was that all of the Caldwell
objects be observable with a 4-inch telescope from a dark location. many of the
objects on the list are visible in binoculars, and some can even be seen with
the unaided eye. Others are more difficult to see, although they can be
glimpsed through a 4-inch telescope, a larger telescope brings out their subtle
details.
I don’t think that Sir Patrick was trying to upstage or
out-do Messier, I feel that his list was developed to compliment the Messier
list, and to present a bit of a challenge to those who had completed a Messier Marathon.
There are some very faint objects on the list and these will certainly
challenge a 4-inch scope, is it possible that those who were openly against the
idea of Sir Patrick's list were simply concerned that their kit or skill level
simply wasn’t up to the challenge?
Of course, living at 51° north there are many of the
Caldwell objects that I’ll never observe. Oh well, maybe I should start work On
the Kalon Catalogue, I wonder what I should have as K1?
As with the Messier list, I’ve included a link to download a
complete Caldwell Catalogue, the list is organised by magnitude, brightest to faintest.
Objects below magnitude +5 are visible to the naked eye under a clear dark sky.
Objects between +5 & +7 are potentially observable with binoculars of at least
10 x 50 under the same sky conditions.
