The Wild Duck Cluster is an open cluster of stars in the constellation Scutum. It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch in 1681. Charles Messier included it in his catalogue of diffuse objects in 1764. Its popular name derives from the brighter stars forming a triangle which could resemble a flying flock of ducks. The cluster is located just to the east of the Scutum Star Cloud midpoint.
Messier 36 or M36, also known as NGC 1960, is an open cluster of stars in the somewhat northern Auriga constellation. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654, who described it as a nebulous patch. The cluster was independently re-discovered by Guillaume Le Gentil in 1749, then Charles Messier observed it in 1764 and added it to his catalogue. It is about 1,330 pc away from Earth. The cluster is very similar to the Pleiades cluster (M45), and if as far away it would be of similar apparent magnitude.
Messier 46 or M46, also known as NGC 2437, is an open cluster of stars in the slightly southern constellation of Puppis. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. Dreyer described it as "very bright, very rich, very large." It is about 5,000 light-years away. There are an estimated 500 stars in the cluster with a combined mass of 453 M☉, and it is thought to be a mid-range estimate of 251.2 million years old.
Messier 50 or M 50, also known as NGC 2323, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation Monoceros. It was recorded by G. D. Cassini before 1711 and independently discovered by Charles Messier in 1772 while observing Biela's Comet. It is sometimes described as a 'heart-shaped' figure or a blunt arrowhead.
Messier 69 or M69, also known NGC 6637, is a globular cluster in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. It can be found 2.5° to the northeast of the star Epsilon Sagittarii and is dimly visible in 50 mm aperture binoculars. The cluster was discovered by Charles Messier on August 31, 1780, the same night he discovered M70. At the time, he was searching for an object described by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751–2 and thought he had rediscovered it, but it is unclear if Lacaille actually described M69.
Messier 70 or M70, also known as NGC 6681, is a globular cluster of stars to be found in the south of Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. The famous comet Hale–Bopp was discovered near this cluster in 1995.
Messier 75 or M75, also known as NGC 6864, is a giant globular cluster of stars in the southern constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and included in Charles Messier's catalog of comet-like objects that same year.
Messier 93 or M93, also known as NGC 2447, is an open cluster in the modestly southern constellation Puppis, the imagined poop deck of the legendary Argo.
47 Tucanae or 47 Tuc is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It is about 4.45 ± 0.01 kpc (15,000 ± 33 ly) away from Earth, and 120 light years in diameter. 47 Tuc can be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of 4.1. It appears about 44 arcminutes across including its far outreaches. Due to its far southern location, 18° from the south celestial pole, it was not catalogued by European astronomers until the 1750s, when the cluster was first identified by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille from South Africa.
NGC 381 is an open cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, located at a distance of approximately 3,120 light-years from the Sun. Credit for the discovery of this cluster was given to Caroline Herschel by her brother William in 1787, although she may never have actually seen it.
NGC 4833 is a globular cluster discovered by Abbe Lacaille during his 1751-1752 journey to South Africa, and catalogued in 1755. It was subsequently observed and catalogued by James Dunlop and Sir John Herschel whose instruments could resolve it into individual stars.
NGC 265 is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Tucana. It is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy. The cluster was discovered by English astronomer John Herschel on April 11, 1834. J. L. E. Dreyer described it as, "faint, pretty small, round", and added it as the 265th entry in his New General Catalogue.
NGC 6709 is an open cluster of stars in the equatorial constellation of Aquila, some 5° to the southwest of the star Zeta Aquilae. It is situated toward the center of the galaxy at a distance of 3,510 light-years.
NGC 2506 is a mildly-elongated open cluster of stars in the equatorial constellation of Monoceros, located at a distance of 12.7 kly from the Sun near the Galactic anti-center. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1791. The cluster lies around 10,000 ly from the Galactic Center and about 1,600 ly above the Galactic plane. It is of intermediate age, estimated at around two billion years. The cluster has an angular radius of 12′ and a core radius of 4.8′.
NGC 637 is an open cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, positioned about 1.5° to the WNW of the star Epsilon Cassiopeiae. The cluster was discovered on 9 November 1787 by German-born English astronomer William Herschel. It is located in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, at a distance of approximately 7.045 kilolight-years from the Sun. The cluster is small but compact, and is readily visible in a small telescope.
NGC 299 is an open cluster of stars in the main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud – a nearby dwarf galaxy. It is located in the southern constellation of Tucana, just under 200,000 light years distant from the Sun. The cluster was discovered on August 12, 1834 by English astronomer John Herschel.
NGC 376 is a young open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Tucana. It was discovered on September 2, 1826, by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. Dreyer, a Danish/British astronomer, described it as a "globular cluster, bright, small, round." It is irregular in form, with a central spike.
NGC 2004 is an open cluster of stars in the southern constellation of Dorado. It was discovered by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on September 24, 1826. This is a young, massive cluster with an age of about 20 million years and 23,000 times the mass of the Sun. It has a core radius of 2.85 ± 0.46 pc (9.3 ± 1.5 ly). NGC 2004 is a member of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
NGC 2404 is a massive H II region inside NGC 2403, a spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis. It was discovered on February 2, 1886 by Gulliaume Bigourdan. NGC 2404 is approximately 940 ly in diameter, making it one of the largest H II regions so far known. It is the largest H II region in NGC 2403, and lies at the outskirts of the galaxy, making for a striking similarity with NGC 604 in M33, both in size and location in the host galaxy. This H II region contains 30-40 Wolf-Rayet stars, and unlike the Tarantula Nebula, but similar to NGC 604, NGC 2404's open cluster is probably much less compact, so it probably looks like a large stellar association. This H II region is probably only a few million years old.
NGC 1444 is a small open cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Perseus, about 2-1⁄4° to the northwest of 43 Persei. It has an angular diameter of 4 arcminutes and a brightness of 6.60 in visual magnitude. The cluster has sixty members of seventh magnitude or fainter, and is better appreciated in larger telescopes. NGC 1444 was discovered on 18 December 1788 by the German-British astronomer William Herschel. It is located at a distance of 4,200 light-years from the Sun and is about 7.1 million years old. The cluster has a physical core radius of 1.73 ± 0.42 ly and a tidal radius of 17.4 ± 4.2 ly. The most prominent member is the triple star system Σ446, with a magnitude 6.7 primary. The cluster is a member of the Camelopardalis OB1 association.
