Messier 37, Salt and Pepper cluster
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drja...@aol.com
Mar 1, 2026, 10:10:53 AM (11 days ago) Mar 1
to croydo...@googlegroups.com
It looked promising early last night, I had set up my Dwarf mini in anticipation, but I was soon clouded out.
Nevertheless, I managed to get 24 reasonable and satellite free 15 second wide angle exposures of the open star cluster M37, ie 7 minutes. Moonlight was clearly showing up the gathering clouds and I stopped imaging.
Gain 60 with f5/150mm, matching darks, equatorial mode.
M37 is a dense open cluster about 4,500 light years away. Messier catalogued it in 1764, though discovery is credited to Italian Giovanni Battista Hodierna 'before 1654', according to Wikipedia. M37 contains about 500 stars including several red giants. Some of these can be made out in the attached cropped version. The bright red star at about 5pm from M37 is V440 Auriga, a variable star in the constellation. This star is magnitude 6 and should be observable at the moment with binoculars (if you are lucky enough not to have cloud of course).
James
Nevertheless, I managed to get 24 reasonable and satellite free 15 second wide angle exposures of the open star cluster M37, ie 7 minutes. Moonlight was clearly showing up the gathering clouds and I stopped imaging.
Gain 60 with f5/150mm, matching darks, equatorial mode.
M37 is a dense open cluster about 4,500 light years away. Messier catalogued it in 1764, though discovery is credited to Italian Giovanni Battista Hodierna 'before 1654', according to Wikipedia. M37 contains about 500 stars including several red giants. Some of these can be made out in the attached cropped version. The bright red star at about 5pm from M37 is V440 Auriga, a variable star in the constellation. This star is magnitude 6 and should be observable at the moment with binoculars (if you are lucky enough not to have cloud of course).
James
tcos...@gmail.com
Mar 7, 2026, 10:08:48 AM (5 days ago) Mar 7
to croydo...@googlegroups.com
Hi James
These are very nice images of M37 which you have captured, with spot-on focussing and lovely colour in the stars. Shows what is possible even with a short amount of imaging time.
Well done
Tim C
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These are very nice images of M37 which you have captured, with spot-on focussing and lovely colour in the stars. Shows what is possible even with a short amount of imaging time.
Well done
Tim C
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trevsie7
Mar 7, 2026, 11:07:56 AM (5 days ago) Mar 7
to 'J R' via croydonastro
James, as Tim said your Dwarf gives good focus and nice round colourful stars to the edge of the image field. The optics on it must be good.
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