Sand and Stars

Haffner Catalogue of Open Clusters (1957)

Haffner 18. Image credit ESO

11 July 2018

Both Canis Major and Puppis are treasure troves for the open cluster observer. And for the observer of small wonders the some seldom-observed 26 Haffner open clusters they contain are a tremendous observing project. And as a special observing treat, Haffner 1 and 2 turned out to be Tombaugh 1 and 2 – discovered  by Clyde Tombaugh in 1938.

In 1957 German astronomer Hans Haffner published his “New Galactic Star Clusters in the Southern Milky Way”, containing 26 new open clusters. He was serving as Director of the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein, South Africa (from 1955 to 1959)  when European astronomers were using Bloemfontein as a base for exploring the potentialities of establishing the European Southern Observatory in South Africa. Whilst there he made photometric images of star clusters and produced atlases of the southern sky with blue and infrared images as well as of the southern Milky Way. 

Hans Haffner (1912-1977)

Hans Haffner was born in Nördlingen Bavaria, Germany on 8 November 1912.

1931 – 1933: He studied at the University of Munich before moving to the University of Göttingen in 1933.

1934: Haffner started working on his dissertation at the University of Göttingen, which was about the photographic photometry of the open star cluster Praesepe. 

1939: Haffner was drafted, but fortuitously  the  director of the Munich observatory arranged for Haffner to be assigned to the newly founded Wendelstein observatory for solar monitoring.

After the war he returned to the Astronomical Institute of the University of Göttingen and resumed the photometric investigation of various star clusters. 

1953:  Haffner was appointed Professor of Astronomy at the University of Hamburg. 

1955 to 1959: He Director at the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein, South Africa

1960: After his return to the Hamburg-Bergedorf Observatory, he became chairman of the Astronomische Gesellschaft.

1962 – 1967: Haffner provisionally took over the management of the University Observatory Hamburg-Bergedorf for Otto Heckmann who became director of the newly founded European Southern Observatory.

1967: Haffner was appointed to the newly established Chair of Astronomy at the University of Würzburg.

1971/72: He was in La Silla in Chile together with Otto Heckmann to put a new telescope at ESO into operation. Afterwards he travelled again to Bloemfontein for a research stay.

He died on 23 February 1977.

Haffner Open Clusters

Haffner 1 = Tombaugh 1  (Canis Major)

Haffner 1

RA 07 00 30.2   Dec -20 34 08 

 Mag –   

Size 6.1′

 

Haffner 2 = Tombaugh 2  (Canis Major)

Haffner 2

RA 07 03 05.5   Dec -20 49 12   

Mag –   

Size 3′

Haffner 3  (Canis Major) 

Haffner 3

RA 07 04 06.5   Dec -06 07 59  

Mag – 

Size 5′

Haffner 4  (Canis Major)

Haffner 4

RA 07 06 02.9   Dec -15 00 07  

Mag – 

Size 2.9′

Haffner 5  (Canis Major)

Haffner 5

RA 07 17 58.3   Dec -22 39 36  

Mag –   

Size 7.2′

Haffner  6 (Canis Major)

Haffner 6

RA 07 19 59.5   Dec -13 09 04  

Mag 9.2   

Size 5.9′

Haffner 7  (Canis Major)

Haffner 7

RA 07 22 56.2   Dec -29 30 07  

Mag –   

Size 3.0′

Haffner 8  (Canis Major)

Haffner 8

RA 07 23 06.5   Dec -12 18 36  

Mag 9.1   

Size 4.8′

Haffner 9  (Canis Major)

Haffner 9

RA 07 24 42.0    Dec -17 00 04  

Mag –   

Size 4.2′

Haffner 10  (Puppis)

Haffner 10

RA 07 28 37.4   Dec -15 21 50  

Mag 11.5   

Size 3.5′

Haffner 11  (Puppis)

Haffner 11

RA 07 35 25.2   Dec -27 42 29  

Mag –   

Size 5.8′

Haffner 12  (Puppis)

Haffner 12

RA 07 38 30.0   Dec -14 52 00  

Mag –   

Size – 

Haffner 13  (Puppis)

Haffner 13

RA 07 40 50.2   Dec -30 04 23  

Mag –   

Size 39.2′

Haffner 14  (Puppis)

Haffner 14

RA 07 44 43.7 -28 23 02   

Mag –   

Size 9.7′

Haffner 15  (Puppis)

Haffner 15

RA 07 45 31.2   Dec -32 50 46  

Mag 9.4 

 Size 3.7′

Haffner 16  (Puppis)

Haffner 16

RA 07 50 20.6   Dec -25 27 29  

Mag 10.0   

Size 3.7′

Haffner 17  (Puppis)

Haffner 17

RA 07 51 35.8   Dec -31 48 43  

Mag –   

Size 3.2′

Haffner 18  (Puppis)

Haffner 18

RA 07 52 40.3   Dec -26 23 13  

Mag 9.3   

Size 3.8′

Haffner 19  (Puppis)

Haffner 19

RA 07 52 46.3   Dec -26 16 26  

Mag –   

Size  2.0′

Haffner 20  (Puppis)

Haffner 20

RA 07 56 14.6   Dec -30 22 08  

Mag 11.0   

Size 2.0′

Haffner 21  (Puppis)

Haffner 21

RA 08 01 09.1   Dec -27 12 43  

Mag 10.3   

Size 3.5′

Haffner 22  (Puppis)

Haffner 22

RA 08 12 25.9   Dec -27 54 47  

Mag –   

Size 9.4′

Haffner 23  (Canis Major)

Haffner 23

RA 07 09 33.4   Dec -16 51 58  

Mag –   

Size 14.0′

Haffner 24  (Canis Major)

Haffner 24

RA 07 28 56.9   Dec -18 18 54  

Mag –   

Size –

 

Haffner 25  (Puppis)

Haffner 25

RA 07 48 39.6   Dec -25 57 11  

Mag –   

Size –

Haffner 26  (Puppis)

Haffner 26

RA 08 15 38.6   Dec -30 51 04  

Mag –   

Size 7.9′

 

Copyright © Susan Young 2018