Great Bird Cluster

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Remarks

Great Bird Cluster

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H VI-027

Discovered in 1786 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "a very beautiful cluster of much compressed small and large stars, above 20' diameter."

Birr Castle/Lord Rosse

Observations with the 72-inch f/8.8 speculum telescope at Birr Castle noted "pretty cluster of pB stars, centre nearly round."

Published comments

Doig, P. (1925)

Doig, P. (1925) Notes on the nebulae and clusters in Webb's 'Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes' (Sixth edition, Vol.ii). Part II. M.N.R.A.S., 35(8), 280.

Trumpler, R.J. (1928)

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 15' and the class as 1 3 m.

Bailey, S.I. (1908)

"cluster, coarse; extremely irregular."

Bailey, S.I. (1908) A catalogue of bright stars and nebulae. Ann.Harv.Coll.Obs., 60(8), 199.

Melotte, P.J. (1915)

A catalogue of star clusters shown on Franklin-Adams chart plates. Mem.R.A.S., 60(5), 175-186.

Photo index

Photo Index by Jim Lucyk: Burnhams V2 p1214.

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 6.5 mag open cluster.

Raab, S. (1922)

Raab, S. (1922) A research on open clusters. Lund Medd. Astron. Obs. Ser. II, 28, 1.

Discussed, based of F-A plates.

Doig, P. (1925)

Journal BAA, 35, p159

About 20' diam., a rng of F stars in centre, diam.5'; from this ring three offshoots containing brighter stars.

Doig, P. (1926)

"A Catalogue of Estimated Parallaxes of 112 Nebulae, Open clusters and Star Groups", Journal BAA, Vol 36 (4), p 107-115.

"loose, peculiar structure." He gives the approx. diameter as 17 arcmin.

Vorontsov-Velyaminov, B. (1925/1926)

Vorontsov-Velyaminov, B. (1925) "Catalogue of integrated magnitudes of star clusters", Astron. Nach. 226.195. Comparing the brightness of the cluster with the extrafocal images of stars, he estimates the magnitude as 5.80.

Modern observations

Ancient City Astron.Club (1980)

Listed by the Herschel Club, described as "very large, stands out well, pretty cluster, some 40 counted, seems to resemble a bird in flight. 8-inch, 48x."

Harrington, Phil

Harrington calls this cluster an "amazing object for all telescopes. Using your lowest magnification, look for a quarter-degree long string of 8th- and 9th magnitude stars highlighted midway by a rich triangular wedge of fainter ones. the pattern resembles a bird in flight, so I call NGC 2301 the Great Bird cluster. Its wings are formed by the string of stars, while the three-sided body measures about 6' across. In all, 80 suns of 8th mag and fainter populate NGC 2301."

Tom Lorenzin

Tom Lorenzin, in the electronic version of "1000+ The Amateur Astronomers' Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing", notes: "6M; 15' diameter; 60-plus 8M members; fairly rich, bright and large; impressive in binoculars!."

Reeves, Ken (1997)

Ken Reeves, in "SACNEWS On-line for March 1997", observing with a 10-inch f/4.5 scope, notes: "NGC 2301 (06 51.8 +00 28) This cluster is one of my favorites in Monoceros. I saw this as very large, pretty bright, somewhat compressed, a little rich, with a very nice yellow/blue double star in the middle. About 50 stars were seen in 4 levels, with stars radiating out from the center forming sort of an X. This was a perfect object to end the evening."

Callender, John (1997)

Observer: John Callender

Instrument: 50-mm binoculars Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA

Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: fair

Time: Wed Feb 5 04:40:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 49

A short line of 5 or 6 faint stars, with a possible hint of fuzziness in the background.

Steve Coe

Steve Coe, observing with a 13" f/5.6, notes: "has been a favorite of mine for many years. This open cluster is bright, large and pretty rich with about 40 members. It is easy to pick out in the finder scope. The aspect of this cluster which makes me return each winter is a lovely blue and gold double star right in the center. There is a clear area around the double star. If you have missed this beautiful cluster, put it on your list."

Contemporary observations

Tom Bryant

2008-02-28 20:00:00

Observing site: Little Tycho Observatory

Telescope: C-8

[6h 51m 48s, 0° 28m 0s] A fine spray of stars, in approximately position angle 30°, with a branch at 20°. About 20 arc minutes long.

Carol Botha

2015 Jan 21, Wed

Object:NGC 2301

Observer: Carol Botha

Date: 2015.01.21

Time: 24:00

Location: Betty’s Bay

Instrument: 12' inch Dobsonian F5. Binoculars 10x50. Eyepiece: 25mm plossl (fov 50')

Sky: Clear. Some light pollution E horison

Seeing: Good

Limiting mag: 5.55 HD59256

Quality: Very windy. Observing with shade netting shelter

Apparent size: 25.0' x 25.0'

Dimension:12.0' x 12.0' (Cartes du Ciel)

Object Description:

Open cluster in Monoceros.

Binoculars: Just a faint smudge of stars

25mm: From the central bright yellow star, the wings spread N/S in full flight with the body and beak extending E. Its 'beak' opens in a triangle of bright stars. I would say this one is a loud squawker. I would not classify this as a raptor but it is indeed a rare specimen with only one wattle in the form of a faint chain of stars hanging from behind the 'beak' to S.

Note:

According to my sketch at the eyepiece I would estimate dimension at 25.0' x25.0' .

Dimension: 12.0' x 12.0' (Cartes du Ciel) would seem more like a sparrow than a Great Bird!