Open clusters are cool

[PeterW]

Quick session from a hopelessly light pollutedbgarden before the clouds came over. Orion and the Pleiades dropping behind the trees. I haven’t got a working finder on the APM 70mm bins (tripod mounted) but bright things can be found  by sighting along them. M35 first, very nice chains of tiny wee stars, very nice.

m36/7 (I think) we’re similarly sparking with tiny stars when looked at closely with direct vision.

M44 was quite plain, plenty of stars, but spread out and not many very faint stars, so less visually satisfying. Moving down cancer to m67, which was just visible as a small cloud of tiny pinpricks, nice.

I’m liking these binoculars, two eyes being able to detect faint stars better than one. Going to have to make a list of suitable targets.

Peter

[andrew63]

I've also been looking at some of these lovely clusters tonight in 10x50s plus a look at asteroid Pallas near Arcturus, a starlike speck.  Lovely night here.

 

andrew

[PeterW]

Took the son out to do a bit observing, I think the double cluster is the best so far. 

 

Peter