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M67 - March 2006


daz

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I observed M67 under good seeing although the cloud was patchy using a 127mm f9.4 refractor. It's pretty easy to spot, find Saturn, drop down to Alpha Cancri and turn right a couple of degrees, it's also easily visible in a 8x50 finder.

The seeing a "Cobra" takes a bit of imagination, it's certainly not the first thing to enter your mind when you see the cluster, but there is a swathe of brighter stars against a smattering of fainter ones trailing in a "lazy S" shape so I suppose that will have to do!

A nice, unremarkable open cluster that fits nicely into a 1(ish) degree FOV, it's listed at 25' but seemed wider East to West to me?

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C.C....I've been looking at your pick'(well done mate)

But to me the snake stick's out like a sore thumb...no offence to anyone....

In some instances less is more!

Had a good sesh last night ...with your help ..came easy.

(p.s. If, I had the software I could point it out).

Mick.G.

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I observed M67 last night with the ST102 F/5 and 40mmEP i have to say i was quite impressed by it, the shape of a snake stood out as did the head. Seeing was quite good at that point and -8 :laugh:

James :stars:

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M67 (King Cobra) observed Wed 2nd March. Seeing 8/10 Transparency excellent. Scope nexstar 8" This is quite a small open cluster. It was comfortably contained within the FOV of a 25mm EP (x80) but the most pleasing views were with a 32mm EP on the NS8.

Initially the cluster was pretty uninspiring. It took me quite a while of peering to finally get what I presume is the King Cobra shape. What I see (which is probably different to everyone else!) is, as seen through a diagnonal the coils to the left. Above and to the R are 2 bright stars which seem to be to be the eyes of a cobra reared up and about to strike. Below is another brightish star which could be a nostril (I suppose snakes have nostrils) or a fang. Once I'd seen the cobra the cluster became much more fun to observe :laugh:

Martin

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  • 3 weeks later...

Date: Sunday 19th March 06

Time: 22:00 (before moonrise)

Weather Conditions: cloudy with clear patches

Seeing Conditions: 7-8/10

Temperature: +3 degrees C

Scope used: Revelation 80 f6 refractor + 2" diagonal

Eyepiece used: 9mm Nagler

Whilst looking for Saturn and the Beehive (M44) I became disorientated (I'm new to refracters) and stumbled across the King Cobra (M67) Open cluster. The King Cobra was noticeably darker (Apparant Magnitude 7.5), less open than the Beehive (AM 4) and about a third its size.

Though the sky wasn't inky black, the cluster was still sharply defined with a recognisable shape/design - three close bright stars and another single bright star (outlined in red) are clear markers. (They stand out better in actual observation than in the following diagram):

King Cobra (M67) Open cluster at 53x

image.jpg

Beehive (M44) Open cluster at 53x (for comparison)

image.jpg

Map

image.jpg

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Thanks Martin/Caz/James :lol:

In fact, I have found that actually preparing this report has helped me fix it in my mind - I must submit more.

I forgot this from StarryNight:

image.jpg

FIVE BILLION YEARS OLD :shock:

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  • 4 months later...

They don't mention that this is one of the Landolt Standard clusters. Newbie photometrists image and do photometry on this cluster to measure against well known stellar magnitudes within the cluster to calibrate their own equipment. I have probably dozens of images of this cluster through B and V photometric filters for practice. No, they don't look this good, but that's not what they're for anyway. :laugh:

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