Open Star Clusters

Open star cluster -Messier 37 in the constellation Auriga  - 127 mm Apo refractor - Altair Astro 0.6x focal reducer and field flattener - Canon 600D DSLR - ISO 800.-  Credit: Pip Stakkert

Crop of M 37 - showing stars towatds its centre- 127 mm Apo refractor - Altair Astro 0.6x focal reducer and field flattener - Canon 600D DSLR - ISO 800.-  Credit: Pip Stakkert

Open star cluster - M44- The Beehive or Praesepe in the constellation Cancer- 127 mm Apo refractor - Altair Astro 0.6x focal reducer and field flattener - Canon 600D DSLR - ISO 800.-  Credit: Pip Stakkert

Crop of M44 -showing stars towards its centre- 127 mm Apo refractor - Altair Astro 0.6x focal reducer and field flattener - Canon 600D DSLR - ISO 800.-  Credit: Pip Stakkert

"Over 100 open star clusters have been found in our Milky Way galaxy. They contain any number up to about 1000 stars that formed from the same giant molecular cloud of gas and dust. They are loosely held together by mutual gravitational attraction and over time become disrupted by close encounters with other clusters and clouds of gas as they orbit the galactic centre. Clusters usually survive for a few hundred million years before close encounters cause the dispersal of their constituent stars. Open clusters have been found only in spiral and irregular galaxies where there is active star formation". - Archie Mendes - visiting theoretical astronomer at the Jodrell Plank Observatory - Reydon University - 'School of Computer Modelling and Difficult Sums'