Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2004 December 5
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2004 December 5
Explanation: A picturesque chain of unrelated stars is visible with strong binoculars towards the constellation of Camelopardalis. Known as Kemble's Cascade, the asterism contains about 20 stars nearly in a row stretching over five times the width of a full moon. Made popular by astronomy enthusiast Lucian Kemble (1922-1999), these stars appear as a string only from our direction in the Milky Way Galaxy. The above photograph of Kemble's Cascade was made with a small telescope in New Mexico, USA. The bright object near the bottom left is the relatively compact open cluster of stars known as NGC 1502.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
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A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.