- Collinder 399 Al Sufi's Cluster, Brocchi's Cluster, or the Coathanger
Collinder 399 is a collection of stars in the constellation Vulpecula first described by the Persian astronomer Al Sufi during the Tenth Century AD. It was also independently discovered in 1654 by Giovanni Batista Hodierna. It bears the name "Brocchi's Cluster" as a result of the work by Balmiro F. Brocchi in the 1920s and 1930s. Brocchi noted that the main stars in the group covered a range in magnitudes from 5.16 to 7.11 and could be conveniently used to estimate the brightness of variable stars. Because of the unique connect-the-dots shape they form, the 10 brightest stars in the group have been called the "Coathanger".
The distances to the 10 brightest stars in the group range from 237 to 1380 LY. Thus, this grouping if stars is probably not a true open cluster but just an asterism.
Due to its large size (around 1.5 degrees wide), I couldn't get the Coathanger in a single image using the SOCO system. My image is a mosaic of three separate images. Also, in the sky, the Coathanger is upside-down (relative to north). I have rotated my image 180 degrees so that it is "right-side up".
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