Suggested Searches

APOD

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.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Kemble's Cascade

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 .

Date December 5, 2004
Credit Credit and Copyright: Walter MacDonald
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.