British astronomer William Hershel is best known for his discovery of the planet Uranus. What some may not know is this famous astronomer had a little sister named Caroline.
Caroline’s younger years were not easy. Smallpox disfigured her face, and her family assumed she would never marry. She eventually joined her brother in England, assisting him with cataloging his astronomical work. In due course, Caroline started her own observations with a small refractor telescope (think of a small spyglass) until her brother built her a larger reflector.
Caroline took her own step into history on February 26, 1783, when she looked through her small telescope at the constellation Canis Major. There, she spied a “beautiful cluster of pretty compressed stars.” She had found the NGC 2360 cluster now named after her. Caroline would continue her work for many years and live to the age of 97.
As you look up on a cold winter’s night with binoculars or telescope, swing over to Canis Major and find NGC 2360, giving thanks to Caroline for her first discovery hundreds of years ago.
My Observations
| Date | February 24, 2022 |
| Time | 8:30 p.m. |
| Location | Seattle, WA |
| Magnification | 127x |
| Scope | Meade 8″ SCT |
| Eyepiece | 16mm |
| Seeing | Above Average |
| Transparency | Above Average |
As the cold digs deep into my bones on this winter night, I focus the scope on Caroline’s cluster deep in the southern sky. It’s so low I had to wait patiently for the object to sail into view between the trees.
It’s not lost on me that Caroline first set eyes on this cluster almost 239 years ago this week. On a day when war is starting in Ukraine, one takes comfort in knowing that war, disease, and other destructive forces will not destroy all hope. I’m sure there was much to lament in Caroline’s time when she first spied this star pattern, but we still live on 200 after, and many wars later, looking up to the firmament in awe of the beauty that exists in the universe.
Additional Observation: I first observed NGC 2360 on January 22, 2021, at 10:05 p.m. and jotted down the following: Under tonight’s moon-bathed sky, I’m having trouble bringing out the fainter stars in this cluster. The brighter stars produce what looks like two parallel lines, and I’m sure on a darker night, stars would fill within the lines of brighter stars.
Key Stats
| Constellation | Canis Major |
| Best Viewing | Winter |
| Visual Magnitude | +7.9 |
| Absolute Visual Magnitude | -3.0 |
| Distance from Earth | 6,000 ly |
| Milky Way Location | Orion Spur |
| My Viewing Grade | B |
Sources and Notes
- Photo of NGC 2360 provided by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
- Photo of Caroline Hershel by Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-04-03): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hs76suwh CC-BY-4.0
- Sketch by Wayne McGraw.
The Garden Astronomer 
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