I used to observe this field in the past initially with binoculars and later visually my first telescope: in the ocular it was a spectacular view. In photography their different colors become evident, and the contrast of the star size is stunning.
Normally open clusters are not among the most photogenic objects in the sky (yet I like them much), but this couple is definitively an exception.
A wider field including the two clusters can be seen
here.
NGC2158Once thought to be a globular cluster, NGC 2158 is an open cluster 11000 ly away, in Gemini. It is immediately southwest of Messier 35, and is believed to be about 2 billion years old. The two clusters are unrelated, as NGC2158 is around 8000 light years further away. The evident reddening of its stars is probably due to extinction determined by galactic matter. It has a radius of 9 ly.
Picture: Reddened by extinction, the stars of NGC2158M35Also known as NGC 2168, is an open cluster of stars about 3000 ly away. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux around 1745 and independently discovered by John Bevis before 1750. It has the angular size of the full moon and a real diameter of 11 ly.
It has 418 probable members. To be a member means to have a gravitational tie or, if recently freed, having been created by the same event.
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