A sparsely populated open cluster that is limited by Phi Cas from the east. Prevailed by nearly a dozen stars of mag 10-11 with nearly identical colour and luminosity. In the background of these are fainter, nearly 13 mag stars of at least double the amount, which clearly form a cluster with their brighter companions despite the big difference in brightness.

I've started a big enterprise when I decided to sketch these two open clusters: during the long process of drawing I've restarted from scratch once and decided to abandon at least 3 times. NGC 1807 was the easier case: a handful of bright 9-11m stars give the most of the cluster, which has a figure in the middle of the field theat resembles me of a flying kite. The really hard case is the NGC 1817, seen on the right side of the image. It also has brighter stars, however its real image is shaped by the many stars fainter than 12-13 magnitudes. During sketching many stars emerged by using averted vision which made it even harder, especially when after sketching a couple of dots on paper, and turning back to the eyepiece one tries to pick up the line. On the other hand this double-cluster is a beautiful and easy target, that should be observed with lower magnifications.

Shiny, large size open cluster with four brighter stars in the middle of it. It's not too dense, therefore it may not be easily detectable in the finderscope. For me the real essence of it are the high number of double stars, however not all of these are real binaries in real.

Despite its small size, this cluster can be found easily. When looking through the finderscope, it is sitting at the end of a very long path of bright stars. It consists only a small number of stars, yet the majority of these are quite bright with magnitudes somewhere between 7 and 11. Besides the 10 bright members, there are stars of at least the same number, within magnitudes 11 and 13.

A rather small cluster, but still with many bright members in the constellation Orion. You can find it easily, tho a medium magnification will be neccessary to reveal fully its figure, that is made up of two separate parts. At the end of one of these patterns sitting a very close binary star, both stars with high magnitudes yet can be separated easily, even with a power of around 100x. This cluster is ofter referred as "The 37 cluster", as its stars form a large cosmic 37. :)

This open cluster can be located easily, yet it doesn't cover a large area. It has half-dozen brighter and at least 20 fainter members. Its most notable pattern is the diamond made up by four bright stars in the middle of the cluster. The OC is clearly separated from its environs.

Nice open cluster in the neighborhood of the famous double-cluster of the constellation Cassiopeia. It has a quite large diametre of 20'. Its most notable member is the 7.38 magnitude red giant star, HD 16068.

This open cluster is located in a star field that's free from bright stars. Its most remarkable figure reminds me of a reaping-hook, and is composed by four stars between magnitudes 9 and 10. These are also considered the brightest members of the cluster, besides these only a couple of stars of 8-10m are visible in the field of vision, but most of the members are fainter than 12m. For about 20' to the south is the planetary nebula PNG138.0+04.1, but its nebulosity can only be suspected even by using averted vision - the large, 5.5' diameter planetary cannot really be seen even with the UHC filter on. However, its 13m central star can be found and a little haziness can be detected next to this star that is probably illuminated by the brighter stars next to the central one.

These two star clusters can be found easily nearby the constellation Cassiopeia. The Messier object M52 is a quite large open cluster with clearly identifiable boundaries and has a diameter of at least 20'. Its image is determined by a very bright star, however the cluster itself looks quite rich, even though the brightness of other stars is not even close to their brightest companion. To the east from M52, behind a wall of shiny stars lies the open cluster OCL261 (also known as Czernik 43), populated with a dozen dim stars.

This cluster is not too dense and not at all spectacular, for me its only charm was the northern star of the triangle made up of three bright stars with its nice red/orange colour. Its environs are moderately rich in stars, its boundaries are hardly noticeable, because it perfectly fades into its surroundings.

First I wasn't even sure that I'm sketching the right object, this open cluster looked so insignificant to me for the first look, but after looking up images in a internet database about it, it became clear, that my time wasn't just wasted and I sketced the right thing. Around halfway between lambda and mu Per, a handful of stars, that can hardly be called bright, make up this cluster. On a magnification of 71x it looks as if there were two rings of stars that are bound to eachother. On 167x an almost regular hexagon is the most notable part of the cluster, made up of six stars of similar luminosity and colour, of magnitudes 12-13. Although not too spectacular, because of its easy location it might worth to search and take a look at it.

If I wouldn't check this object out previously with my planetarium-software, I would most probably didn't even notice this sparsely populated open cluster through the telescope. Catalogues claim that it has a diameter of around 25', however it looks larger to me. Its three brightest 7m members rule the field of vision. Unfortunately at the time of this sketch, the Moon was in a phase of around 35%, painting the entire sky gray, which is probably the reason why I haven't noticed any stars brighter than 13m in the area even by using averted vision, no matter that there were an excellent seeing this time.

This rarely mentioned Messier object looks like a diffuse, large spot even through the finderscope. On a low/moderate magnification a view of solid, dense open cluster appears in front of our eyes. A very nice member of the cluster can be found around 9' north from the middle of the cluster: a red giant of a color-index of 1.7, catalogued as HD 52938. With its 7.82 magnitude luminosity its also the brightest star of the cluster. Interestingly, because of its shiny red colour, I wouldn't think that this star is nearly 2 magnitudes brighter than the other stars in the centre of the cluster, which look like they're the brightest by far.

I've had the opportunity to look at this beautiful, dense open cluster on "moonless" nights. Then it seemed to have a quite diffuse background. This effect was missing now, although I've seen it as a fuzzy, foggy spot even through the finderscope, thanks to its relatively high gross luminosity of around 6.4m. Although it's a splendid view even in moonlight, its real character can be seen only on really dark nights.

You can find this sparsely populated, large open cluster near the star ß Mon in Monoceros. In its center shines the star HR 2344 (HD 45546), which is a mag 5 star - therefore it is visible with the naked eye even from moderately dark places. The cluster has many members brighter than 10m, so it looks nice even through an ordinary finderscope, and because of its size and sparse density you shouldn't go for powers higher than 50-75x when looking at it.

On a night with a near fullmoon, when planetary nebulaes and galaxies are an impossible mission, brighter open clusters such as the M103 are still sparkling vividly in the eyepiece. The OC that's 6' in diameter can be located near the Delta Cas, especially spectacular on low magnification. In its neighborhood one may find such other interesting clusters like the Trumpler 1, the NGC 663 or the NGC 659, all of which worth a look even from light-polluted places.

In the neighborhood of the M103 located this tiny but spectacular open cluster. 71x: the object probably looks the nicest on this magnification. It's notable figure is a little line formed by four stars of around the same (11-12) magnitude. 167x: the cluster itself is less spectacular on this power, however one of the four stars splits to a binary of two dim (13m) stars. The OC has an easy position, and is a very interesting, spectacular view, worth taking a look at it.

This is a large open cluster with a diametre of around 15'. Not that spectacular, although it can be clearly distinguished from its environs that is relatively poor in stars. It has two separate shiny parts, with the brightest stars as shiny as 7.5-9 magnitudes, sparkling in all different colours. The Western part of the cluster has an optical double at its end towards the middle of the cluster that can be easily separated, and where both members are also real doubles in themselves. However, I could not resolve those doubles at this magnification level.

The second largest open cluster of the constellation Cancer, right after the M44, which can also be seen with naked-eyes even under suburban skies. On a power of 71x, it fills the neary half degree field of vision. It was easily found: even the 8x50 finderscope displays it as a shiny little blur. The M67 is a nice, dense open cluster, with a members of high variety of brightness: there are about a dozen dominant stars of the 12th magnitude, but in the backround you can easily detect stars of 13-14m. The entire population visible to me were at least 100 stars, however the background looks really diffuse, so I assume there must be plenty of even dimmer stars in this cluster.

Even the brightest star of this 6-7' cluster is only 10m, and all the rest of its brighter stars (about half a dozen) are also near 12m. Hidden in the background are even fainter members (about 30-35), which can be seen by averted vision to the 14th magnitude or so. It has a fuzzy background, suggesting plenty of even fainter stars.

Huge, sparse open cluster, with a background of the sparkling of the faint stars of the Milkyway. Bordered from the North by the 6.2mag star SAO 51632, which makes it easier to find the cluster. It consists around two dozens of bright stars of nearly the same luminosity (between 10 and 11 magnitudes) and colour. For me its most spectacular feature is the shape of a mirrored S North from its centre. Requires little magnification and a very wide field of vision.

Interesting, large size open cluster with faint stars of variable magnitude: contains about 10 brighter and 20 much fainter stars. Nicely extrudes from its backround. Its cumulate size and brightness can be easily described if I say that even the finderscope shows this object as a small faint spot. The picture drawn by its stars reminds me of a horsefish.

At 71x it has a diametre of about 1/8th of that of the whole FoV, this means it's a quite small open cluster, clearly emerges from its environment. It contains two really bright stars (possible foreground stars) and at least two dozens of faint ones.

This tinny little object is also known as the Rocking Horse cluster. The name says it all: it really looks like a little horse jumping around the space. Although it's in a quite easy position, it still is a neglected object, as when it comes to Cygnus, everyone thinks of nebulae like the Veil and its companions, and the tiny shiny planetaries. Too bad, because this cluster is a real gem! It's special features are the two brightest stars of the cluster (at the front leg and the eye), that are apparently yellow, even though their spectral class suggests a rather white colour. This optical illusion is caused by the interstellar dust that is so common through Cygnus. A very important hint: you should use a fairly high magnification when looking at this object, because it's located in a field that is rich in bright stars, which makes it harder to detect the real shape of the cluster.

This observation and sketch was made on an early dawn hour in the Kiskun Astro Camp near the village of Jászszentlászló, Hungary. As the Sun was already approaching the southern horizon, the NELM was getting worse at a high rate. Therefore I've decided to sketch something easy that's made of many bright stars. Out of a sudden I've picked the famous Double Cluster, which turned out to be a paint to sketch with their plenty of bright stars. So, I was racing with the Sun, as the Venus was already high above the horizon. Under country skies, this pair of open clusters can be seen to the naked eye as a small fuzzy spot near the easily recognizable W-shape of the constellation Cassiopeia. It's one of the most remarkable objects of the Northern Hemisphere, so I can't really imagine why it was not included in the famous catalogue of Messier. From my home country it is a circumpolar object, so it can be seen through the entire year. It's so easy, that it cen be resolved with the smallest telescopes or binoculars, therefore an great catch for everyone. SQM reading: 20.91 m/arcsec^2, 9°C.

A very spectacular little open cluster in the great Orion constellation. It has only a handful of stars, but they are very different in colour, with brightness in the 9m range. The most interesting part is the paralelogram in the middle. SQM reading: 21.0 m/arcsec², 9°C.

Huge, bright open cluster in the middle of the Cancer constellation. It's so bright that it can be easily noticed with the naked eye on a sky that has a NELM of at least 4-4.5 magnitudes, as a faint fuzzy spot. It's actual diametre when viewed in a telescope is twice as large as that of the full Moon, therefore it's best viewed in a wide field telescope like a short rafractor, finderscope or binoculars. I've some sentimental feelings about this object, because it was the first deep space object I've ever observed with my own telescope (a 114/900 newt back in 2001). It has some dozens of relatively bright stars with white or a bit bluish colours, some of them forming spectacular triangles. The weather conditions were not favorable for sketching, I measured -11°C when I finished this session.

This large, moderately bright open cluster can be detected easily in a 50mm finderscope or binocular. When looking through the telescope I see countless number of stars that are very similar both in colour and luminosity. I can also detect some foggy background which may be miriads of unresolved stars. The conditions were not perfect to sketch this cluster because the 50% Moon caused a low NELM (SQM reading was 17.33 towards the Moon and 19.46 opposite the Moon, -3°C, low humidity).

A small, triangle shaped open cluster sitting in a sparse stellar environment. A very bright star dominates the cluster at one of its corners, but I suspect that this star is not actually a part of this group. Apart this, the cluster shows about a dozen of brighter and another dozen of fainter members.

I was very fortunate that we had a clear night when this rare event occured, we had only a couple of such evenings this winter sofar. The 50% Moon was on the Southern side of the Pleiades. The star you may notice near the Moon was visible only for about 5-10 minutes, before it was covered by our little brother.