When I left work about 7 pm on friday, the satellites showed lots of clouds south of San Jose, but also a large hole in the clouds approaching the Peninsula. I decided to try some local observing and was able to enjoy clear skies in Palo Alto 'till about 1 am. I set up the 7 inch Starmaster on a dark hill and continued work on the Hershel 400 list. Most of the OC and galaxies I tried were easy with this aperature in suburban skies. NGC 1023 looked impressive enough here in the suburbs that I am curious to see what this elongated galaxy in Perseus would like from a truly dark site.

In star hopping to the Hershel 400 targets, I also came across many other objects I had never seen before. Two Stock clusters were particularly noteworthy. The first, Stock 2, is near the double cluster, and was also mentioned in a recent post by Jay. Stock 2 is huge and looks even better in binoculars than a scope. With binoculars the stars clearly fall into the pattern of a stick-man covering almost 2 degrees of the sky. The stickman is hanging upside and looks great against a milky way field way that includes the double cluster and a curving chain of stars that nearly connects the double cluster and the stickman. Phil Harrington lists Stock 2 as one of the overlooked treasures of the sky in Touring the Universe Through Binoculars. Check it out (at low power) if you haven't seen it.

The other great open cluster I stumbled on last night was Stock 23. This is located about 4 or 5 degrees northeast of eta cepheus, on the border between Camelopardalis and Cassiopeia (RA 0316.3, Dec 60 02). Stock 23 is just beautiful. Lots of its stars are organized in striking chains leading towards a central square. The overall effect looked to me like a square-bodied stick man who was running screaming away from bright bees chasing him. Open clusters are like ink blots though-- everyone sees something different. (I have heard the 457 cluster, one of the best in Cassiopeia, described as ET, an Owl, an F16, or a dragonfly). Stock 23 is at least as striking as 457 and I am surprised it's not better known. It's an obvious bright patch even in low power binoculars but needs a scope to bring out the star chains. Take a look and see what kind of figure you see in this one.