M37, NGC 2099

M37 is an open star cluster in the constellation Auriga. It contains approximately 200 stars within its 27 light-year diameter and is located some 4600 light-years away. M37 is the brightest and richest of three clusters in the same general region of the sky, the others being M36 and M38. The present picture is a color composite of CCD images from the 0.9-meter telescope of the Kitt Peak National Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona, taken in December 1994. Image size 14.2x11.3 arc minutes.