California Nebula

This time of year, as the nights get long and the cool blues of twilight fade into black, if you look to the east a bit above the Pleiades star cluster and just below the knee of Perseus, you’ll find the California Nebula. This image captures a portion of the California nebula. The nebula takes up a large area in the sky. It’s about 2.5 degrees long or about the size of 5 full moons. When viewed in its entirety, it does resemble the shape of California. At a distance of 1000 light years, it is fairly close by astronomical terms. It was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard in 1884. Like many early astronomers, Barnard started out as a comet hunter. At one point, Hulbert Harrington Warner, a Rochester NY businessman and philanthropist with an interest in astronomy, offered astronomers $200 for every comet they discovered. During the contest, Barnard discovered 8 new comments and used the proceeds to buy a house for his family. $1600 went a lot further back in the late 1800s!