Astronomy and astrophotography by Val Ricks for the love of the sky and its Creator. For a better view, toggle F11 and turn off the lights.
February 17, 2010
M37
Tonight I arrived home late. The sky was wonderfully clear. It was too late to set up for imaging. I took the 6" achromat out and wandered through Auriga and southern Gemini. Conclusion: It's hard to describe how beautiful M37 is. The other local clusters---M38, M36, M35---don't hold a candle to it. Yes, M38 has NGC 1907 nearby, and M35 has NGC 2158, but M37 doesn't need these crutches. It is stunning on its own in the 6" at 35x, where it fills the middle half of the view with sparkling gemstones on purple velvet. Whoa!
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2 comments:
M37 is an amazing cluster and I wonder how often it gets overlooked by observers! Looks brilliant in my 12" Dob!
Thanks, Phil. I bet it does! It also looks great in my 4" refractor and the 8" newt I used to own. Highly recommended, and though I seem to want to image each time I get the chance, I've never seen an image that adequately captures the exquisite sight of a cluster like M37, or the Double Cluster, or the brighter globulars.
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