Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: (xxxedit and linkxxx) An asterism is just a recognized pattern of stars that is not one the 88 official constellations. For example, one of the most famous (and largest) asterisms is the Big Dipper within the constellation Ursa Major. But this pretty chain of stars, visible with binoculars towards the long-necked constellation of Camelopardalis, is also a recognized asterism. Known as Kemble's Cascade, it 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, these stars appear as a string only from our perspective in the Milky Way Galaxy. The bright object near the bottom left is the relatively compact open cluster of stars known as NGC 1502.