"Comes in four delicious flavors, Tomato, Chicken, and Consume." (Radio Free Vestibule)
The night of the 21st was clear, Moon free, had good seeing, but transparency was on the very lousy side. Still, I hate to waste a clear night. I know from experience that star clusters are rather forgiving. Auriga was well placed for imaging, and I had not captured Messier 36 through Messier 38 yet. I ended up getting Messier 36 and Messier 37 before the clouds rolled in.
I used relatively short subs of 1 minute binned 1x1 in order to preserve color. Total integration time for Messier 36 was 41 minutes and for Messier 37 was 45 minutes.
I had to say this about Messier 36, observing it visually in my 20" Dobsonian:
"Bright, maybe 120 to 150 obvious stars in 24mm Widefield and takes up about 1/3rd of field (so about 12' in diameter). I'm struck by an asterism of bright stars that kind of make an upside down keyhole."
The night of the 21st was clear, Moon free, had good seeing, but transparency was on the very lousy side. Still, I hate to waste a clear night. I know from experience that star clusters are rather forgiving. Auriga was well placed for imaging, and I had not captured Messier 36 through Messier 38 yet. I ended up getting Messier 36 and Messier 37 before the clouds rolled in.
I used relatively short subs of 1 minute binned 1x1 in order to preserve color. Total integration time for Messier 36 was 41 minutes and for Messier 37 was 45 minutes.
I had to say this about Messier 36, observing it visually in my 20" Dobsonian:
"Bright, maybe 120 to 150 obvious stars in 24mm Widefield and takes up about 1/3rd of field (so about 12' in diameter). I'm struck by an asterism of bright stars that kind of make an upside down keyhole."
In my opinion Messier 37 is the best of the trio visually. Again observed through the 20" Dobsonian:
"One of the finest open clusters in the heavens. Golden star offset from the middle. Many stars of approximately equal brightness, way too many to count. Takes up at least two thirds of field in 24mm Widefield (so about 24'). It is hard to tell how far out it actually goes. The core is quite dense and takes up about 1/4 of 24mm widefield (so about 9'). One of my favorite clusters."
"One of the finest open clusters in the heavens. Golden star offset from the middle. Many stars of approximately equal brightness, way too many to count. Takes up at least two thirds of field in 24mm Widefield (so about 24'). It is hard to tell how far out it actually goes. The core is quite dense and takes up about 1/4 of 24mm widefield (so about 9'). One of my favorite clusters."