Kemble's Cascade (designated Kemble 1) is an asterism located in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Camelopardalis Camelopardalis is a large but faint constellation of the northern sky representing a giraffe. The constellation was introduced in 1612 or 1613 by Petrus Plancius. Some older astronomy books give Camelopardalus or Camelopardus as alternative form ...

. It is an apparent straight line of more than 20 colourful 5th to 10th

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

stars over a distance of approximately 3 degrees (five

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

diameters) of the night sky. It appears to "flow" into the compact

open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of tens to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, and ...

NGC 1502, which can be found at one end.

Discovery

The asterism was named by

Walter Scott Houston Walter Scott Houston (May 30, 1912–December 23, 1993) was an American popularizer of amateur astronomy. He wrote the " Deep-Sky Wonders" column in ''Sky and Telescope'' magazine from 1946 to 1993. Biography Houston was born in Tippecanoe, ...

in honour of Father

Lucian Kemble Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridicul ...

(1922–1999), a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

friar and

amateur astronomer Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...

who wrote a letter to Houston about the asterism, describing it as "a beautiful cascade of faint stars tumbling from the northwest down to the open cluster NGC 1502" that he had discovered while sweeping the sky with a pair of 7×35

binoculars Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes (binocular vision) when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be held ...

.Father Lucian Kemble 1922–1999
RASC Calgary Centre – Credits and Special Mentions. Retrieved 2010-01-27 Houston was so impressed that he wrote an article on the asterism that appeared in his ''Deep Sky Wonders'' column in the astronomy magazine ''

Sky & Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly magazine covering all aspects of amateur and professional astronomy, including what to see in the sky tonight and new findings in astronomy. Other topics covered include: *observing guides for planets, ...

'' in 1980, in which he named it ''Kemble's Cascade''. Father Lucian Kemble was also associated with two other asterisms, ''Kemble 2'' (an asterism in the constellation of Draco that resembles a small version of Cassiopeia) and ''Kemble's Kite'' (an asterism that resembles a kite with a tail which is also in the constellation of Camelopardalis). In addition, an asteroid, '' 78431 Kemble'', was named in his honour.

References

External links

Kemble's Cascade

Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

, 2000-08-14
Kemble's Cascade

, 2010-01-28
Kemble 2

Kemble's Kite
Asterisms (astronomy) Camelopardalis {{constellation-stub