Located within the pentagonal shape of Auriga, this is one of the "Big Three" open clusters in this constellation. This is a tracking test image, which was guided with an external guidescope. The field here is 1/2 degree wide with the cluster occupying about half the field, at 12 arcminutes in diameter. The brightest stars are 7.5 magnitude, the cluster itself having an integrated brightness of 6.0.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST8i 
Exposure:  L = 10m (1mx10)
Filters:  UV
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FMHW = 1.9 arcsec, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  10 C
CCD Temperature:  -10 C
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, AIP4WIN, PW Pro.

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