NGC 2374

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H VIII-035

Discovered in 1785 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "a cluster of pretty large scattered stars, pretty rich, about 20' long, crooked figure." In the Philosophical Transactions, 1814, Herschel described it as "a large cluster of stars considerably compressed and rich; some of the stars are arranged in a long crooked line."

John Herschel (1847) Cape Observations

Observed by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "the most compressed part of a scattered cluster or rather region, more crowded with stars than the rest of the milky way, though hardly entitled to rank as a cluster. The stars run in singular lines and curves on a dark ground."

Published comments

Trumpler, R.J. (1928)

Trumpler (Lick Obs Bul, Vol 14, No. 420) gives the diameter as 4.5' and the class as 2 2 p.

Burnham's Celestial Handbook

Burnham calls this a very large, little compressed cluster, 15' across, like a scattered field of stars.

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 7.5 mag open cluster.

Modern observations

Tom Lorenzin

Tom Lorenzin, in the electronic version of "1000+ The Amateur Astronomers' Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing", notes: "9M; 15' diameter; scattered field of bright stars; 1.5 degrees to W is DIF NEB N2359."

Steve Coe

Steve Coe, using a 17.5" f/4.5, notes: "pretty bright, pretty large, not compressed. Seen in finder, 20 * in Milky Way field, somewhat flattened shape at 100X."

Brian Skiff

Fenkart+ 1972: arc opens S, has six *s, m12.5-13.

15cm - mod f. 5' diam, 25 *s in area elong NE-SW. to Sw side is center of cl, *s

m12-12.5; NE are scattered brtr *s. BS, 26Jan1982, Anderson Mesa.

25cm - on circ 3' area on SW are 25 *s. sm arc on SW side center. pretty nice.

BS, 26Jan1982, Anderson Mesa.

Contemporary observations

Auke Slotegraaf

1996

As seen with a 10-inch f/5, this cluster has two 9th mag stars on its south-western edge. It appears as a more concentrated region in an already busy starfield. The cluster shows about six 10th mag stars and what appears to be a host of fainter members. It is reasonably large, poor in bright stars and ill-defined in shape, but nevertheless easy to find at 30x.

Tom Bryant

2010 11 18 4:38:55

Observing site: Little Tycho Observatory

Telescope: C-8

[7h 24m 0s, -13° 16' 0"] A large, 30' group of ~15 9...mv stars. Barely stands out from the rest of the milky way.

Richard Ford

2013 February 8th, Friday

Location:Blesfontein Guest Farm,Sutherland.

Time:2:04am.

Sky Conditions:The most crystal clear sky possible.Dark moon and stars magnitude 6 and fainter are visible with the naked eye.Excellent clean sky,limited star flickering and brilliant objects.

Instrument:12-inch Dobsonian.

This open cluster has an irregular appearance and that this cluster is loose.This cluster consists of 10th to 11th magnitude stars.The stars in this cluster are nearly the same brightness as each other and that this open cluster is not at all concentrated.This open cluster measures 9.2'x 3'.Chart.No.94, NSOG Vol.1.