M36, in the constellation of Auriga, was first observed by Giovanni Batista Hodierna sometime prior to 1654 but his work remained obscure until uncovered in 1984 so the earliest observation known before then was by Le Gentil in 1749. Charles Messier included it in his catalogue on 2nd September 1764. It is 4,100 light-years away and is about 14 light-years across. It appears to be about 25 million years old and contains at least 60 stars, not one of which is a red giant.
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M36 captured with my ETX125 fitted with a focal reducer. The diameter of the cluster is about 12 minutes of arc. The cluster as a whole has a visual magnitude of 5.6 so is just visible to the naked eye in really dark skies. Date and Time: 15th November 2010 04.04 UT Camera: Starlight Xpress MX716 Telescope: ETX125 with 0.33 focal reducer and Astronomik CLS filter Capture: Star_mx7. Exposure 30 sec. Processing: Star_mx7: Enhancement factor 25 RegiStax: 10 frames stacked, gamma 1.5, histogram 10-240 |
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