M35 (NGC 2168) Gem open cluster Difficulty
level 1NGC 2158 Gem open cluster Difficulty level 3
Date of observation: 1999/12/30 23:32
Observing site: Makinoto
Transparency/seeing/sky darkness: 3/2/4
Instruments: 32cm Dobsonian with WF32 at 50x
Width of field: 1.3 degrees
This open cluster is located at the foot of Castor in the west of Gemini.
It is large and very bright, easily visible to the unaided eye.
Through a telescope the cluster is crowded with bright stars of similar magnitudes. Among those stars, 5 or 6 particularly bright stars will attract observers' attention. The distribution of stars in the cluster is rather uneven with fewer stars at the center and the overall shape is trapezoidal. There is a string of stars running to the west-southwest starting from a double star northeast of the center.
NGC 2158 is visible in the same field of view. At this magnification it is nebulous and not resolved at all.