M 37 Deep sky · Open cluster in Auriga · M 37 · NGC 2099
January Salt-and-Pepper Cluster
The richest of Auriga’s three open clusters: a dusting of faint stars like salt and pepper, with a single orange star at its centre.
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- Type
- Open cluster
- Designations
- M 37 · NGC 2099
- Constellation
- Auriga
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.6
- Apparent size
- 15′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 05h 52m · Dec +32° 33′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 2.1 times as wide. The Sun passes 9° from it around mid June, and for about 25 days of the year it sits within 15° of the Sun, lost in its glare.
When to see it
On the night of Wed 16 Dec 2026, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT | 14:39 | 00:12 · 71° | 09:44 |
| New York EST | 15:54 | 00:06 · 82° | 08:18 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:14 | 01:17 · 59° | 07:19 |
| Sydney GMT+11 | 20:50 | 01:08 · 24° | 05:26 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 73° up in the south.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 22° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around mid December, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by mid March it is highest in the early evening, and in mid September not until the hours before dawn.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- The naked eye, from a dark country sky, which shows stars to about magnitude 7.0; from a city, binoculars.
Look for
It is the south-easternmost of the three. Binoculars show a round glow; a telescope, a field full of stars.
Science
It is older than its two neighbours, and its brightest stars have already swollen into giants — hence the orange ones.
Look for
From 50° north it climbs to 73°; from 35° north it climbs to 88°; from the equator it climbs to 57°; from 35° south it climbs to 22°.
Look for
Magnitude 5.6 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (1.1 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (1.4 to spare); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (5.4 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (6.9 to spare). Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 3% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 25% of the field’s width.