Week of Nov. 1-7, 2009 by Dennis Mammana on Creators.com

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Week of Nov. 1-7, 2009

Now that autumn is firmly set into place, I've been sorting through my closet in search of warmer clothing to get me through the winter. I don't know why it is, but I always seem to find one fewer coat hanger than there are pieces of clothing in the closet. Where these things go during the long summer months is anyone's guess.

Conveniently, Mother Nature offers a solution in the heavens. It's called the Coat Hanger, and it's one of the most unusual star groupings overhead at this time of year.

To find it, go outdoors after dark and locate the Summer Triangle. This is a huge figure made up of the three brightest stars high in the west after dark: Vega, Altair and Deneb. Vega is the brightest of the three stars. Below and to its left lies Altair. Above Vega (and faintest of the trio) is Deneb.

Along the triangle's lower side — about one-third of the way from Altair to Vega — you might spot a hazy area of light. This was discovered at least 1,045 years ago by the Persian astronomer Al Sufi. Of course, without optical aid, Al Sufi didn't know exactly what he was seeing, except that it appeared as a fuzzy patch of light on the western edge of the Milky Way.

Aim binoculars in this direction, however, and you'll be surprised by what appears before you.

Here you'll see 10 faint stars that form a perfect shape of a sideways coat hanger!

Of course, stars are distributed randomly throughout space, and the figure we see is simply the result of the human mind's attempt to make order out of randomness. In fact, look at any group of stars in the sky and, given enough time and imagination, you will almost always devise a recognizable figure.

Also known as Brocchi's Cluster — or more formally as Collinder 399 — the Coat hanger is probably not a star cluster at all. It was in the 1970s and 1980s that astronomers began to suspect that many of its stars might be moving together — as if part of a stellar family. Today, however, it appears that the Coathanger's stars may be separated by hundreds of light years and drifting through space in completely arbitrary directions and speeds, and may not be part of a cluster after all.

Cluster or not, this is one great sight to check out on cool autumn nights.

To find out more about Dennis Mammana and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.