Auriga

By late evening in January, the constellation of Auriga sits high in the night sky. With its name being the Latin for “charioteer” it has been associated with several characters in mythology.The constellation is dominated by Capella and at magnitude 0.08 it is the sixth brightest star in the night sky. Auriga offers the observer several bright open clusters including M36, M37, and M38, all of which are fine objects in binoculars or a small telescope. Auriga is also host to a a number of Ha emission nebulae of which IC405, the Flaming star nebula, is perhaps the most prominent.

Image credit : Torsten Bronger CC BY-SA 3.0  Published in seasky.org

M36 is an open cluster comprising approximately 60 stars of which about 40 stars are visible in most amateur telescopes. It is approximately 3,900 light-years away and is about 14 light-years across. It is is the smallest and the most concentrated of the three clusters.The open cluster M37 appears larger than M36 and lies at a distance of approximately 4200 light-years. It comprises about 150 stars the most prominent of which is an orange star at its centre. M37 is approximately 25 light-years in diameter It is the brightest open cluster in Auriga

The open cluster M38 is the least concentrated of the three clusters in Auriga and lies at a distance of approximately 3900 light-years from our sun. It has an apparent diameter of approximately 20 arcseconds and a true diameter of about 25 light-years. It has a much more varied stellar population than M36 and M37. M38 is accompanied by NGC 1907, a smaller and dimmer cluster that lies half a degree south-southwest of M38.

IC405, the Flaming Star Nebula, is a reflection / emission nebula surrounding a blue-white star. IC405, along with its neighbours IC 410, IC 417, and NGC1931 makes a fine target for wide field imaging.

There are several minor meteor showers with their radiant in Auriga. The most well known shower is the Alpha Aurigids (“the Aurigids”: August-September) but there is also the Delta and Zeta Aurigids. The Zeta Aurigids is a weak shower lasting from December 11 to January 21 and reaching a peak on January 1. It has very slow meteors, with a maximum rate of just 1 to 5 meteors per hour.