M36 — Pinwheel Cluster
Open Cluster in Auriga
About
The Pinwheel Cluster, an open cluster in Auriga about 4,300 light-years away by one estimate (a 2020 study gave about 3,800). It is only around 25 million years old and has been compared to a young Pleiades.
Imaging tips
- About 12′ across, small for an open cluster: 2,020–3,370 mm on APS-C, or a crop of a wider frame.
- One LRGB set of 15 five-minute red and 12 each green and blue (3 h 15 min) was shot at about 1.1″ per pixel, under a crescent Moon and poor seeing.
- Colour came from calibrated RGB; the imager added a synthetic luminance and boosted saturation in the star cores through a mask.
- M36, M37 and M38 fit in one wide-lens frame: 12 ten-minute subs at 85 mm covered all three plus the nebula IC 410.
- Best in December.
Facts
- Size
- 12′
- Magnitude
- 6.0
- Coordinates
- RA 5h 36.3m, Dec +34° 8′
- Framing, APS-C
- 2020–3370 mm
- Framing, full frame
- 3090–5160 mm
- Best months
- Dec
- Peak altitude
- 74° from 50°N, 89° from 35°N