NGC 6819 is a nice
small open cluster near the Cygnus/Lyra boundary. It contains about
two dozen stars from 10th to 12th magnitude within a 5' circle. Dark
skies and a large scope will reveal many more fainter stars as well.
In my 18-inch f/4.5 Dob
I see an irregular smattering of bright stars overlapping a larger
smattering of much fainter stars. The impression is as if we are
seeing two clusters, one close and one far away.
About 7000 light years
distant, these stars formed together from a giant interstellar
molecular cloud complex around 2.3 billion years ago. That makes
them a little more than half again as old as our solar system and
the earth.
The view in a 6" at
50x. North is down and east is right.
This view is taken
from the Digital Sky Survey and shows a 1/2o
field.
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