Location: Home
Date: 2022-04-05
Time: 9:25 PM ADT
Instrument: 10" Meade SCT, 40 mm Plössl
Magnification: x63
Transparency: Excellent (1)
Seeing: Excellent (1)
Temperature: 4º C
No wind or clouds.

Constellation:  Auriga
Type: Open Cluster
Magnitude: 6
Distance: 4.1 kly
Size: 12'

I knew M36 was between M38 and M37. After locating M37, I slewed the telescope northerly and a little lower towards the horizon. The centre seemed to be filled with multitudes of dim stars. No one star really stood out as being the brightest in the cluster. Could see where some of the lines of stars were curved like a pinwheel's blade, although one may not guess that from my sketch. 

NOTE:
I first viewed this Messier object almost 3 years ago.

Location: Home
Date: 2018-05-18
Time: 10:20 PM ADT
Instrument: 10" Meade SCT, 30 mm eyepiece
Magnification: x83
Transparency: Good (3)
Seeing: Good (3)
Temperature: 9º C
No clouds. Hazy near the horizon.

 

I used the grey fuzzy M37 as the start point with binoculars to find M36. Then used the push-to* SCT to obtain better definition of the cluster. I could detect 10 bright stars in a diffuse star field.

 

* At this time, the SCT was not on motorized mount. We jokingly referred to it as the "push-to SCT."

 

 

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