| Description | Modern scholarship attributes discovery of this small open cluster to Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654. It, along with M38, was independently discovered by Le Gentil in 1749. Charles Messier was probably aware of this, though his catalog entry for September 2, 1764 is silent on discovery. <--> The Pinwheel Cluster moniker is presumably motivated by the rough pentagram shape of the blue giant stars which includes at least three doubles. This was my third capture of a strange evening when it rained right up to the moment it cleared around 9 PM. Because of the 93% moon, I had planned to capture a number of Messier objects, mostly clusters, using my EdgeHD. However, because of the late rain, I couldn't set up in advance, so I decided to observe with the Seestar instead. |
