Messier 44 with double and multi-star systems - 21.04.2024

[josefk]

I'm quite pleased with this this morning... 🙂

I've had the intention for a while to get after a few double stars within Messier objects [open clusters]. i have a list for M44 and a list for M37. M37 is incredibly daunting (dozens and dozens of groups within groups) but M44 is a bit simpler so i started with it last night.

The sketch below is a tidied up composite of four field thumbnails for the star groups plus one larger "map" done at the eyepiece for M44 itself. By the time i came to make the map for M44 (at lower magnification than i'd been using for the groups) the sky had turned really milky with high haze and only the very brightest stars of M44 were breaking through - in some ways this made laying out the open cluster simple (fewer stars) but on the other hand sort of spoilt the point of the exercise which was to appreciate the parts in close up the step back and wonder at the whole of them together. 

Still - good fun and surprising hard to keep track in the field of what star is related to what - i've checked Stella Doppie this morning and my thumbnail sketches are actually more useful than my field notes to piece it all together:

BTW i've just realised my sketch as photographed omits West and North. West is pretty much directly towards the lower left corner and North to the upper left corner.

Painstaking thumbnails below:

[JeremyS]

Excellent 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[josefk]

Thanks @JeremyS - harder than i expected it to be TBH. It was the kind of exercise that would really benefit from dual mounted scopes to keep a wider view to hand...it was too damp last night to even attempt that.

[SwiMatt]

Such a lovely idea and sketch, @josefk! I really like the composition. I can also imagine how complicated it must have been! Great work!

[AlcorAlly]

I love the idea of inline notes and labels, the composite sketch works really well to grasp the complexity of the targets. Thank you for sharing!

[josefk]

Thanks for the kind words @AlcorAlly i aim to attempt it for certain closely grouped galaxy groups even where all my original sketches for a certain group may not be from the same night (or even the same season).

The approach may not scale for M37 though and it was M37 that originally started the thought process in chain 🤣

[mikeDnight]

Amazing and a great way to make the sketch more than just a pretty picture. It's a nice deep dive into M44. 

[GordonD]

Wow that is very impressive - great work.

[AlcorAlly]

19 hours ago, josefk said:

The approach may not scale for M37

It could evolve into a  a giant hand drawn M37 wall mural. Could be spectacular. 

[YogSothoth]

Great sketches and observing doubles in open clusters is certainly an intriguing idea.