M 38 - Starfish Cluster (Monty Chandler)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Auriga (Aur) · Contains: HD281125 · HD281128 · HD281129 · HD281130 · HD281131 · HD281134 · HD281136 · HD281138 · HD281142 · HD281143 · HD281144 · HD35519 · HD35921 · HD35940 · HD35952 · HD35966 · M 38 · NGC 1907 · NGC 1912 · PK172+00.1

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M 38 - Starfish Cluster

Link: https://montychandler.smugmug.com/Astrophotography/The-Heavans/i-dXjS8j7/A

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M 38 - Starfish Cluster

Link: https://montychandler.smugmug.com/Astrophotography/The-Heavans/i-dXjS8j7/A

Messier 38 or M38, also known as NGC 1912 or Starfish Cluster, is an open cluster of gravitationally bound stars traversing our Milky Way about 4200 light years from our solar system in the constellation of Auriga. The cluster's brightest stars form a pattern resembling the Greek letter Pi or, an "oblique cross". Experts say the cluster is 220 million years old. With an apparent magnitude of 7.4, it is invisible to the naked eye.

Messier 38 appears quite large in 10×50 binoculars and binoculars with larger magnification resolve some of the cluster’s stars. 4-inch telescopes show many of the cluster’s stars, mainly concentrated toward the central region and forming an irregular pattern that has been compared to the Greek letter Pi, an irregular arrow and an oblique cross.

The cluster’s X shape is even easier to make out in 8-inch telescopes (a future image), which reveal stars across the cluster, many of them arranged in pairs.

The cluster occupies an area of 21 arc minutes in apparent size and has a linear radius of 25 light years. The brightest star in M38 is a yellow giant with the stellar classification G0 and a visual magnitude of 7.9. With an absolute magnitude of -1.5, the star is 900 times more luminous than our Sun.

There is another open star cluster, NGC 1907, located in the vicinity of M38. It can be seen roughly 30 arc minutes to the south, on the right side of this image. It may be undergoing a close encounter with M38.

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6893155
PixInsight job	XTMV6AHKVZGFAAG6D050ZY0HUW39JB6U
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h28m36s.100
RA (top/left)	05h26m29s.83
RA (top/right)	05h26m00s.12
RA (bottom/right)	05h30m41s.49
RA (bottom/left)	05h31m16s.65

Dec (center)	+35°51′45″.9
Dec (top/left)	+36°39′26″.6
Dec (top/right)	+35°08′02″.9
Dec (bottom/right)	+35°03′56″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	+36°35′15″.2

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M 38 - Starfish Cluster

M 38 - Starfish Cluster

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