Open cluster
M36 (M36)
In Auriga (Aur) • Magnitude 6.3 • 12 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with M36 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A young, compact open cluster in Auriga, one of three bright Messier clusters in the same constellation — a celestial trio also including M37 and M38. Its stars are only about 25 million years old, having formed long after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
M36 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M36, N 1960 |
| Type | Open cluster |
| Constellation | Auriga (Aur) |
| Right ascension | 05h 36m 07s |
| Declination | +34° 07' 48" |
| Apparent magnitude | 6.30 |
| Angular size | 12.0 × 12.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 79° |
| Best imaging months | Sep, Oct, Nov |
How to image M36
M36 sits in the constellation Auriga at right ascension 05h 36m 07s and declination +34° 07' 48". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window.