I decided to hunt down the open clusters of Auriga tonight. Not a difficult task, as they are all visually pretty close to each other and Auriga is a well defined constellation with plenty of bright stars.

M36 is the first cluster I landed on, inside the box of the constellation. There are maybe 50 distinguishable stars tonight. It is a large bright open cluster, with a hint of nebulosity off to one side. I've heard that is another open cluster in the background, but I can't know for sure. As I was observing, a satellite crossed my field of view. Those things are becoming a nuisance!

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M36

  • Observed with: Orion 10'' SkyQuest dobsonian
  • Seeing: average
  • Light pollution: below average