My New Favourite - M35

[Zaine UK]

Hi guys,

I was trying to see as many Messiers as i could last night. Very good conditions. I was working my way through them when i got to M35. I looked at M3 the other night and it was good, but quite faint. I'm familar with M42 and M45, but in my opinion M35 blew them both away.

I attached my 32mm Eyepiece to my Celestron CPC 800 about 10pm last night and set the GOTO to M35. I was instantly blown away. i could see so many stars tightly grouped together. It fellt like i was travelling through space. I pressed the Info button and was told M35 was about 35000ly away and about 26ly across. It was amazing. I had to go inside and get my girlfriend outside to have a look. She was like "wow, that's amazing!". It will now be on my must show list to friends and family members. When i looked up with my naked eye and viewscope nothing was visable.

Can anyone recommend any other good objects which might challange M35's beauty?

[Dan Watts]

I will def check this out tonight...the skies have been great this week!

I tell you, u are lucky...if I was to try and get my GF outside I know what she would say! haha.

Clear skies and happy hunting!

Dan.

[Helen]

If you like M35 (which I really do too!) then M36, 37, 38 in Auriga are really nice too. You can compare and contrast the four clusters.

Helen

[Kedvenc]

yes, this is a lovely cluster. Did you also see ngc2158 right by and sort mixed into m35? It's small and faint in my 200 but worth a look. As your eye moves around stars seem to sparkle across it with the averted vision. Another small cluster I like is in cancer (not the beehive), m67 I think, right by Acubens (alpha Cancer). M13, in Hercules, is lowish in the sky around midnight but amazing no matter what the sky conditions.

[devonrosie]

M37 is my favorite. I look at it everytime I have the scope out if I can.