It was not really crystal clear, the Moon was disturbing anyway; scattered light due to the high clouds. Not a crystal clear sky, then.
On my list were the Objects of the Month, the three open clusters in Auriga. M36, M37, M38. To these I added M35 and M78. I decided to observe them before I got to other objects.
M36, of course, seems to be the brightest, a nice open cluster. Fairly concentrated. Is also the smallest. As a result, it appears brighter than the other two. SkySafari mentions a "Crab-like" appearance. I can agree with that.
M37 is made up of many more stars, the individual stars are a bit fainter on average, but since it is also the last to rise from the East, it does not appear as bright. The 150 mm refractor turns it into a brilliant field of stars with about a hundred tiny points of light. Very noticeable is the big red Giant just off center. With larger telescopes and with brighter skies, the color stands out immediately.
M38 is made up of about a hundred stars. The brightest of these are in a clear cross shape as far as I am concerned. Gorgeous sight.
To mark the transition to the other deepsky objects, I had chosen M78 in Orion. You are then immediately confronted with the fact that the Moon is above the horizon. And you're looking for a nebulous object. Not easy. The nebula was only just above the sky background, to see both stars in it I had to increase the magnification considerably to over 150X.
Lo and behold, inside for a coffee break. Then out again, let the eyes adjust to the darkness, my binoculars show M42 beautifully. Then practice on M78 for night-vision and on to the cluster in the Rosette nebula,
Next, on to Christmas Tree
Then on to the final challenge of the evening.
The biggest gain in night-vision is already achieved after about 7 minutes, after that it rises further, but much slower and less steep. However, you have to have the patience to sit that out under your observation hood in a backyard.
Eventually it loomed up. The funny thing is that once you find it, it's not that hard anymore. (advancing night vision) And after 15 minutes you ask yourself why you didn't find him right away.
The old sketch wasn't that pretty for my taste, so I spruced it up a bit in the computer.
Thanks for reading.