
Click on graphic to see it full size.
Early Tuesday morning, October 14
th, the waning gibbous Moon will be rising
near the feet of the celestial tag-team, the
Gemini Twins,
Pollux and Castor. Within the field of view of binoculars, (about 7
o), from the Moon, is the open star cluster
M-35. This open star cluster is estimated to be 2800 light years away. With its apparent size of nearly one-half degree and its overall apparent magnitude of 5 allows
M-35 to be just visible to the unaided eye in dark enough skies.
With the use of binoculars M-35 begins to be seen as more than a fuzzy patch of light, however through a low power telescope eyepiece M-35 resolves into a nice somewhat close grouping of stars.
Caveat Astronomer! Since the nearly last quarter Moon is close to M-35 it is not unreasonable to assume that moonlight will brighten the sky enough to dim out many of the stars in M-35. If that proves to be the case wait a few more days until the Moon has moved far enough east to no longer interfere.
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Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for more observing information for this month.
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