Combination of 15, 1 minute images unfiltered.
SBIG STL-1001E CCD. 20" f/6.8 Dall-Kirkham cassegrain telescope at prime focus.
| Object Type | Open Cluster |
| Constellation | Auriga |
| Magnitude | 10.2 |
| Size | 6.0' x 6.0' |
Number 68 in the Herschel 400 list is NGC 2126, is a fairly small and compact cluster of mostly fainter stars in Auriga, adjacent to a 6th magnitude star. This star, SAO 40801, is a B-type main sequence star that lies at a distance of about 410 lightyears. It is almost certainly a foreground object.
One thing that surprised me with this image was the number of background galaxies visible in the field. For an object this close to the plane of the Milky Way, I did not expect there to be so many galaxies visible. Possibly one reason for this is that when observing in this direction, we are looking directly directly opposite the galactic centre, in the direction that the Milky Way is thinest. The brightest galaxy in the image, visible to the upper left of the bright star, is the 15.4 magnitude PGC 18335.