Late Winter Clusters
This week we explore some nice little star clusters in the early evening sky. You need your binoculars for this tour.
We must find a good eastern horizon and make our observations around 8 p.m. The objects are open star clusters. These clusters are simply a mass of stars that do not have the snowball shape of globular clusters.
Open clusters are usually young – millions of years old as opposed to the billionyear-old globular clusters. The stars in open clusters are much younger and tend to be hot and large. This week’s clusters all have Messier or “M” numbers and are easy to locate.
Facing east-northeast, locate the bright yellow star high in the sky. This is Capella in the pentagon shaped constellation Auriga. Look with binoculars near the center of the pentagon. You should see a faint fuzzy spot. This is M-38 or the Starfish Cluster.
From M-38, sweep down and slightly right to the next cluster. This is M-36 or the Pinwheel Cluster. Finally, sweep down to M-37 or the January Salt-and-Pepper Cluster. Low power telescopes help to bring out individual stars in the Auriga Clusters.
Now look below Auriga and find two bright stars in an almost vertical line. These are Castor and Pollux of Gemini the Twins. From the upper star Castor, follow a line of stars right and upwards. This is one
Search for another fuzzy cluster. This is M-35 at the foot of Gemini, known as the Shoe-Buckle Cluster. It is a relatively bright favorite of amateur astronomers and everyone should learn to find it.
Now, from Pollux and Castor, move down starting with you naked eyes. You should see a large distinct fuzzy area. This is the Beehive Cluster or M-44 in the constellation Cancer the Crab. It is a large cluster so binoculars are the best tool here.
Finally, down and right from M-44 is M-67, the Golden-Eye Cluster. It is the faintest member of the tour this week.
Explore the late winter, early spring fuzzy spots whenever you can.
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