> Three cheers for Richard! Congratulations, my friend. The Herschel 400
> is a nice list, although there are too many open clusters for my taste.
> :-)
Yes.... way to go Ozer! Another TACie joins the club, er, non-club, er,
whatever. I bet TAC will soon have more Messier Certificates per capita
than any other, uh, shoot, well, non-club ;-)
As for my friend Navarrete, there sure are a lot of opens on the Herschel
400. But, it also allows some degree of success for in-town viewing,
since opens are one class of object that responds well even under some
moderate light pollution. Double stars are okay as well, but to my
thinking are more subject to seeing than open clusters. And, opens are
somewhat of an acquired taste... the more you find, the "funner" they get.
I think I'll do a short observing report of what I've been viewing in (and
out of) town over the past month. I think people will be surprised how
much can be seen, and how much detail there is to be noted in open
clusters.
BTW... I accidentally ran into the "37" cluster the other night out
observing. Looking at it (I don't recall the NGC number off-hand), I
suddenly realized the shape of the group, two distinct sections, clearly
described the number 3 and 7.
There are quite a number of open clusters I can heartily recommend
tracking down in the winter sky (rather off the beaten path types).
Mark Wagner
mgw@No-Spam-intl.com