'Icy' 348

By the star Atik, in the constellation of Perseus, hides this faint reflection off interstellar dust. It is now thought that Atik is not associated with this reflection and that the cluster within it, IC 348, lights it up. Giving a very icy visual impression the reflection nebula is on the other side of the cloud I showed you in the last post. The dazzlingly bright Atik looks so much closer to us than the nebula but you must bear in mind stars have a vast range of luminosities. While it is visible as a shimmering point of light here, and to the naked eye above the Pleiades in the autumn, winter and spring, the star is actually two - a blue giant, with a blue dwarf orbiting it in 4 ½ days that mutually distort each other into rugby ball shapes. And the larger is indeed luminous, as it is probably a good deal greater than 1000 light years away AND it has dust in the way. Otherwise known as just plain old ‘omicron Persei’, Atik is referred to in a certain fictional account as having a system of planets surrounding it, colonised by a race of giant horned toad creatures, where the 8th planet is ruled by the despotic leader, Lrrr.