Open cluster M38

About the object

Open cluster M38 in Auriga, the middle one in age of the constellation's three clusters: about two hundred and twenty million years old. Its brightest stars form a cross-shaped, or as often written, a Greek-letter-π pattern. In the same field sits the smaller and fainter cluster NGC 1907, which only happens to lie along the same line of sight.

Distance: about 4,200 light-years, apparent size in the sky: ≈ 21′, constellation Auriga.

How it was shot

Everything here was shot with a DWARF Mini smart telescope from a balcony in a city in Ukraine: light-polluted sky, only the eastern half of it visible, and a roof overhang that cuts off the south. 1 night (in September), 1 session, 143 frames with exposures of 30 s, without a filter, in broadband. The stack holds 1 h 11 min of light. The goal for this object is 1 h, and it is reached.

Open cluster M38 in the night log: 28 September.

How it went

One night of thirty-second frames without a filter. The cross-shaped pattern of bright stars is visible at once, while the neighbouring NGC 1907 in a city sky is barely a knot of faint stars in the corner of the field. The goal for bright clusters was closed in one session.