Volume 14 Issue 02February 2008
What's Up? -- February 2008
M-35 in Gemini

    "Mmmm," could describe evening viewing during February this is not a reference to taste as much as it is toward the various Messier objects that are within 'reach' of binoculars and small telescopes.
finder star chart for February at 2000 CST Use this sky chart as a guide to locating them.
(click on the thumbnail image to the left)
    At the feet of the Gemini Twins, above Orion's up raised right arm, is M-35, a cluster of several hundred stars approximately 2800 light years distant, that is just visible to the unaided eye, and easily seen through binoculars or small telescope.
    Further south, about 13 degrees (two 7x50 binocular fields of view) east of the bright star Sirius are a pair of star clusters, M-46 and M-47. While they Two Star Clusters: M-36 and M-37 appear side-by-side M-46 is more than 5000 light years away while M-47 is much closer at a distance of about 1600 light years. M-47 is the brighter of the two and is more easily seen than M-46.
    Within about 12 degrees are two more open star clusters visible through binoculars. Twelve degrees north of M-47 is M-50, a cluster of fewer than one hundred stars. About the same distance away but on the other side of the bright star Sirius is the star cluster M-41. While small in number of stars it contains enough bright stars to to be seen in dark skies with the unaided eye.

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