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Messier 39
Sign in to saveAlso known as M39, New General Catalogue 7092
open cluster in the constellation Cygnus
Messier 39 is a loose collection of stars located in the constellation Cygnus that can be seen with binoculars or a small telescope. While not particularly dense or bright compared to other star clusters, it serves as a useful target for amateur astronomers learning to explore the night sky.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
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Encyclopedic overview
Messier 39 or M39, also known as NGC 7092, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Cygnus, sometimes referred to as the Pyramid Cluster. It is positioned two degrees south of the star Pi Cygni and around 9° east-northeast of Deneb. The cluster was discovered by Guillaume Le Gentil in 1749, then Charles Messier added it to his catalogue in 1764. When observed in a small telescope at low power the cluster shows around two dozen members but is best observed with binoculars. It has a total integrated magnitude (brightness) of 4.6 and spans an angular diameter of 29 arcminutes – about the size of the full Moon. It is centered about 1,010 light-years (311 parsecs) away.
This cluster has an estimated mass of 232 M☉ and a linear tidal radius of 8.6±1.8 pc. Of the 15 brightest components, six form binary star systems; one more is suspected. HD 205117 is a probable eclipsing binary system with a period of 113.2 days that varies by 0.051 in visual magnitude. Both members seem to be subgiants. Within are at least five chemically peculiar stars and ten suspected short-period variable stars.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Messier 39” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.