Andrew Cooper
Jan 11, 2023    Waikoloa, HI (map)
11.4cm f/4 Newtonian, Kinipōpō @ 18x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

A bright rich cluster in very rich galactic starfield, 20' in diameter, partially resolved, very bright, very rich, a very nice object for the RFT or binoculars

Andrew Cooper
Feb 19, 2018    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 92x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 20%

Largest, brightest, and richest of the Auriga clusters, large, bright, very rich, fully resolved, about 30' in diameter, a notable star about one magnitude brighter than the others at the very center of the cluster, the cluster is cut by notable rifts separating the rich clumps of stars

Andrew Cooper
Jan 4, 2015    Waikoloa, HI (map)
28cm f/10 SCT, NexStar 11" Gypsy @ 80x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Big, beautiful, rich, a distinct cluster of hundreds of members in a 20' area, quite distinct, fully resolved, a notable orange star at the center (HD 39183 magV 9.16)

Andrew Cooper
Oct 21, 2006    TIMPA, Avra Valley, AZ (map)
12x36 Canon Image Stabilized Binoculars

Good sized, bright, easily found, not resolved, a round patch of fuzz, M36 one field west

Andrew Cooper
Sep 30, 2005    Gila, New Mexico (map)
90mm F/12 APO Violet Haze

Large! Rich! beautiful cluster of hundreds of well matched stars, a large central group with several clumps to the sides separated by slight rifts

Andrew Cooper
Mar 25, 1998    Sycamore House, Tucson, AZ (map)
20cm f/10 SCT

Dimmer than M36 or M38, but far more visible members, yes the magnitude shows brighter, but few bright members gives the eye the impression of a dimmer object, I will not attempt to draw this crowd tonight

Rev. T.W. Webb
May 19, 1885    Hardwick, Herefordshire, England (map)

Sm. calls this 'a magnificent object;' the whole field being strewed, as it were, with sparkling gold dust; the group is resolvable into about 500 stars, from 10 to 14 mg., besides the outliers. Even in smaller instruments extremely beautiful, one of the finest in its class. Gaze at it well and long. K. notices a brighter star near centre, Burton: ruby: 10, Es.: 9.0: pale red. All the stars in the mass must be nearly at the same distance from us, and consequently their real sizes must be different. The aspect of the Nubucula Major in the S. Hemisphere convinced h. of this: it is ocular proof of the incontrovertible, though long discredited fact, that the apparent brightness of stars has very little connection with their distance from the earth. E. of Rosse, wonderful loops and curved lines of stars, first remarked by D'A.

― Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, T. W. Webb, 1917

Captain William Henry Smyth
Oct 16, 1836    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A double star in a cluster in front of Auriga's left shin. A and B, both lOth-magnitude, and pale yellow. A magnificent object, the whole field being strewed as it were with sparkling gold-dust; and the group is resolvable into about 500 stars, from the 10th to the 14th magnitudes, besides the outliers. It was found and fixed by Messier in 1764, who described it as "a mass of small stars, much enveloped in nebulous matter." This nebulous matter, however, yields to my telescope, and resolves into infinitely minute points of lucid light, among the distinct little individuals. It is immediately preceded on the parallel by another small double star:[HD247932/HD247909??] and is about half a degree north east of 225 P. V. [HD 38819], whose alineation is already described.

― A Cycle of Celestial Objects Vol II, The Bedford Catalogue, William Henry Smyth, 1844

Johann Elert Bode
Nov 2, 1774    Berlin Observatory, Germany (map)

On November 2, 1774, I discovered in Auriga, west and below the star Theta, a new nebulous star, which, observed through the 7-foot telescope, appeared as a vivid nebulous patch, in which no stars were recognizable, of uneven shape and slightly elongated in the north-south direction. Its distance from the star Theta is 4°58' end from Nu 4°53'. Mr. Le Gentil has discovered two new nebulous stars in Auriga (M36 and M38), which appear to the East of the previous as small clusters through telescopes. Around the new nebula there appeared many small stars in the 7-foot telescope, and chiefly it is situated in a position with the three brightest as shown in the 7th figure, where also the measured separations are shown.

Charles Messier
Jan 2, 1764    

Cluster of small stars, little remote from the preceding [M36], above the parallel of chi Aurigae; the stars are smaller, more close together and enclosing some nebulosity; with an ordinary telescope of 3.5 feet, one has pain to see the stars: this cluster is reported on the Chart of the second Comet of 1771, Mem. Acad. 1777.

― Connaissance des Temps, 1781

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