In the early morning hours of June 18, 2020 I aimed my 8" SCT into the constellation of Cygnus to get a view of the open cluster M39. This open cluster was too big for my zoom eyepiece so I had to switch out to my 32mm Plossl eyepiece to fit all the bright stars in the field of view. This open cluster is around 824 light years from Earth and a diameter of 7 light years. It is estimated that this open cluster is between 200 to 300 million years old, which is relatively young in an astronomical time frame. This cluster is formed by roughly 30 bright stars in a loose cluster. This cluster is also one of the closest Messier objects to Earth.
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| M39 Open Cluster in Cygnus |
This sketch was done on black canson paper with a white charcoal pencil to place the stars. I made the stars of this cluster larger than the surrounding field stars to help represent their brightness in the eyepiece. I also used a kneaded eraser to dim some stars as needed.
If you'd like to find out where to locate this object in the night sky along with see the time lapse of me sketching this at the eyepiece then check out the video below:
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