Not Your Father's M39

Image Title: Not Your Father's M39

Copyright: Timothy Martin

Date image was taken: December 10, 2023

Location: Deep Sky West, Santa Fe, NM

Image Description and Details: A few weeks ago, I was looking for a broadband target to shoot early before all the candy in Orion cleared the horizon. Because like so many others, I have a long-term quest to shoot all the Messier objects, I chose one I hadn't gotten to yet. I have 79 in the tank, but mostly what is left are open clusters and a few globs. I was dreading going after all the remaining open clusters. They're boring, I thought. So I thought I'd get a few hours on M39 and be done with it. But as I processed the first stacks, I started seeing some interesting things--dark chocolate clouds, hints of hydrogen-alpha, some small but interesting galaxies, cold molecular clouds, and even a nifty little planetary nebula off to the west (right).

And it turns out that it's really even more interesting than all that. M39 ostensibly contains around 30 stars with a common origin. But recent studies using Gaia data reveal that M39 has a corona that contains hundreds of stars. Other nearby open clusters display a similar phenomenon, and Stefan Meingast has prepared a marvelous interactive 3D map ( https://homepage.univie.ac.at/stefan.meingast/coronae.html ) that shows the positions, depth, and breadth of these clusters, which include M39. 28h 37' integration time

Equipment Details: Takahashi TOA130; 10Micron GM2000; Moravian C5a-100M; Chroma filters.

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.astrobin.com/users/AccidentalAstronomers/