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High in the northeast as twilight falls in February, the pentagon shaped constellation Auriga shines brightly. Auriga lies near the ecliptic, and actually shares one its stars, b, with nearby Taurus. To find Auriga, first locate the the Hyades cluster in Taurus. This V-shaped group of stars marks the face of the bull, and extending out from either end of the V are his horns. The brighter one of these is b and marks one corner of Auriga. The brightest star in Auriga, however, is Capella. Capella is the sixth brightest star in the sky and lies at a relatively close distance of 45 light years from Earth. Southwest of Capella is a grouping of 3 stars in a narrow triangle sometimes called "The Kids". We'll tell you why when we get into the mythology of Auriga below.
The Winter Milky Way cuts through Auriga, making it a rich hunting ground for open or "galactic" clusters. The most famous of these is a trio of Messier objects, M36, M37, and M38. In the 18th century, comet hunter Charles Messier spied these 3 "fuzzy" objects in his telescope. He marked their positions on his star map, then came back the next clear night to see if they had moved. They hadn't, so they went into his catalog of "non-comets", which amateur astronomers still use today.
Some of the stories behind Auriga go back to Greek mythology. Auriga was seen as a charioteer carrying two to three children on his arm. He was also known as Erechtheus, son of Hephaestus (Called Vulcan by the Romans). Hephaestus, who was crippled as a child, was believed to have invented the chariot so that his son could move him about more easily. In another tale, the name Capella means "she-goat", and she is protecting her 3 kids.

(Information for this article was borrowed from Chris Dolan's Stars and Constellations Page, and the book 365 Starry Nights by Chet Raymo).

In this larger, more detailed view, (adapted from Norton's Sky Atlas 2000.0), we'll take a closer look at some of the interesting sights in Auriga. Our tour goes in order of Right Ascension, which is right to left on this map. All of these objects are open clusters, which can best be viewed with binoculars or any size telescope.

NGC 1778. Magnitude 7.7, size 7 arcminutes. A loose, sparse open cluster consisting of 8th to 10th magnitude stars.

NGC 1857. Magnitude 7.0, size 6 arcminutes. A small but interesting cluster; in the very center of it lies a 7th magnitude star which is probably not a member of the cluster. More info on NGC 1857.

NGC 1893. Magnitude 7.5, size 11 arcminutes. A large, loose open cluster buried inside of a reflection nebula (IC 410). You can see this reddish nebula on the Auriga photo link on the previous page. Visual observers will most likely not be able to see the nebula, as it is too faint to see visually. It takes a long exposure photograph to reveal it. NGC 1893 is also just southeast of a tight group of stars in Auriga. To the naked eye they can be mistaken as one of the Messier clusters.

NGC 1907. Magnitude 8.2, size 7 arcminutes. This close neighbor of M38 is a favorite of mine and well worth a look. It is small and faint but very dense and tight, and has the appearance of a faint globular cluster.

M38. Magnitude 6.4, size 21 arcminutes. My second favorite of the Messier clusters in Auriga. Take the time to explore this cluster with a different range of magnifications. At medium power (roughly 100 to 150x), the cluster seems to be an explosion of stars, thrown out in all directions. It has also been described as shaped like the Greek letter Pi. More info on M38.

M36. Magnitude 6.0, size 12 arcminutes. The smallest of the Messier clusters, but also the brightest. M36 is a loose concentration of stars, the brightest of which are 9th magnitude. Sharp eyed observers may glimpse one or more of the Messier clusters with the naked eye from a dark sky site. More info on M36.

M37. Magnitude 5.6, size 24 arcminutes. My personal favorite. This cluster is extremely dense, almost like a large, irregular globular. It actually contains about 150 stars brighter than magnitude 12.5. This cluster is textured like a globular; the center is extrememly concentrated, and sparser around the edges. More info on M37.

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