NGC 2362

On Saturday evening I had a chance to get out with the telescope and get some observing in. I only had till 10:15pm local time till the Moon came up and what I really wanted to look at was not favorable in the sky. I am have the Virgo, Leo, and Canes Venatici as the biggest area of the sky left on my journey of star hopping the Messier list to earn a pin.

At the end of the year 2015, the Astronomical League introduced some new certificates to aid folks in earning the Master Observing Pin and to go beyond the initial pin requirements. Of course being a pin addict I had to join the fun of this. One of the certificates is the Observer certificate. To earn this certificate one must complete the Lunar, Solar System, Binocular Messier or Telescope Messier, Constellation Hunter and then a pin of their choice from a list. One of the pins on that list is the Universe Sampler, which I have the workbook for.

I will go into more detail about the Universe Sampler at a later time, but one of the objects in the list is NGC 2362 in Canis Major.

I had never heard of this object before and had to look up a picture of it so I knew what I was looking for. Oh boy am I glad I did. This is a most beautiful open cluster. It has a very bright star in it and that is surrounded by a semi circle of stars that wrap around it... it is absolute beauty. It is magnitude 4.1(v) and is approximately 5000 light years distant. The bright star is Tau Canis Majoris a 4.39 magnitude O8 type star.

Also as a bonus about 2 degrees away to the north is h3945 a double star also known as the Winter Albireo. I stumbled on the double star while panning around for the cluster. It is really beautiful too and worth study.

While I didn’t get a lot of time out under stars this weekend because of the Moon, I did come across this gem of a star cluster and a pretty snazzy double star too. I would really encourage you to get out and look at these before we lose the winter constellations till next fall.

Sources:
SEDS
One Minute Astronomer