Do open clusters bore you?

[Odmidod]

Being a relative beginner I find everything facinating and nothing boring

[661-pete]

I suppose my answer would have to be "Yes and No".

The Pleiades: M45 - how could anyone declare that to be a 'boring' object what with so much going on there, the nebulosity and all? Nevertheless, in a medium power telescope in average light-polluted skies, what you see when you turn towards M45 is a rich star field. You could equally view a rich star field by pointing at any part of the Milky Way. In that sense, I suppose there is a certain level of disappointment to be felt by the novice: "Somehow I expected more". This wouldn't be the only time the novice said those words!

For me - well I often look at M45 with bins. Can't make out the nebula: my eyes ain't good enough or the sky ain't dark enough, but a glorious spectacle all the same. Can't possibly say it's 'boring' through bins.

Likewise M44 the beehive. But here: this is an object which I've tried imaging, and I have to say, not a lot to interest one there. No nebulosity to speak of. According to the books, the number of stars varies between about 300 and 1000-odd, but they don't appear to be tightly associated and barely stand out in front of the field stars. I think my image shows a few hundred but honestly I don't know which of those actually belong to M44 (the only thing I can be sure of is that Mars, which was in the field when I imaged M44, doesn't belong... )

Ones I really do like, telescopically, include M11 the wild duck. Here, despite the fact that it's located in one of the thickest bits of the MW, the stars of the cluster really do bunch together and stand out ahead of the field. And they do give the impression of really belonging to the cluster. When imaging, this cluster needs sensitive processing so that the field stars don't swamp the cluster. And I have to say, it doesn't look the least bit like a duck nor quack like one, to me (Actually I believe it's so named because it looks like a flock of birds flying in formation)...

Any others? Well I think the Auriga and Gemini clusters (M35-M38) really do hold out as good well-structured clusters which are pretty obvious to the eye in a small telescope and well worth having a look at.

A little known one which tickles my fancy because of its setting: NGC 6802. It's the one at the end of the Coathanger (Brocchi's Cluster - not a cluster itself btw, only an asterism). 6802 would be utterly unknown and unloved if it lay anywhere else in the sky, but because it's right at the end of the Coathanger, it often gets picked up and imaged by 'accident' as an 'extra' and is quite a nice tight compact little cluster for all that.

But I don't think I can give a completely general answer to the OP. Hence I repeat: yes and no.

[Chris H]

No way, under my dark skies open clusters are my favourite things to look at. 10" aperture, 8mm Ethos and the constellation of Auriga makes me a happy choppy.

[JonnyP]

i dont find anything in the night sky boring....

Hmmm, one word..........clouds!

[Phil4130]

i am wowed by the numbers I have to say. I often wonder what the night sky might be like if you were on a tiny rock orbiting a star in one of these clusters or a glob!?

[Sam]

I used to find clusters a bit boring but as my knowledge grows and I understand more about the dynamics of what is going on I find them a lot more interesting and spend more time observing them.

[stringbean]

How can anything in our beautiful universe be boring to look at? I never tire of anything I observe.

[Macavity]

I find they stir the imagination, beyond just the visual impact... Imagining what it might be like to live with MANY close stellar neighbours. Like binaries, multiples, only more so.

[damnut]

I must say that othing bores me. I can look at the moon when it is on full beam and drowning out most of the sky. And any time look at the clusters in Perseus. Just thinking about how long that light has been travelling to reach me is awesome.

Cheers

[Simms]

I`m primarily an imager (or attempting to be) and I don`t find much immediately impressive from my light polluted site when just viewing - but when you start imaging. and all those details start to come through - woohoo, open clusters are one of my favourite targets - personal favourites being Pleides, Owl Cluster and the Double Cluster, but the Beehive and Wild Duck clusters are up there as well.; I started a similar post a few months back wondering why people got excited over Double Stars - and the response was overwhelmingly in favour of doubles - I took the trouble to spend a night looking at doubles as a result and still found nothing that excited me (although Albeiro is rather pretty in its colour contrast) - thats the thing with this hobby - one mans meat is another mans poison.. Good innit?

[cantab]

I'll be honest, yeah I haven't been all that impressed by open clusters. Possibly because it just seems like I can point in a more-or-less random direction and see a similar dense starfield. And maybe I'm spoilt by images of rich globulars. But then, I'm handholding bins. Maybe if I had a tripod, I could get a steady view and try and see more detail. (And be able to switch between the bins and a map or book without having to find the thing again every time.)

[sbooder]

Do open clusters bore me?

Most of the time but it depends on the open cluster really. But yes, on the whole they do!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Auriga gets another thumbs up.