Berkeley 52, Open Star Cluster
The star cluster "Berkeley 52" is found in the constellation Vulpecula at the enormous distance of 16,000 light-years, so its apparent brightness is
naturally very low. On deep exposed images it can be seen that the cluster is very rich in stars. From the apparent diameter of 1.9' (arcminutes) the
true size can be determined to 8.8 lightyears.
According to "WEBDA" the age of the open cluster is about 2.0 billion years - which is really a lot. That "Berkeley 52" hasn't dissolved in this time
span is probably due to its stellar richness.
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Even in a 20" telescope "Berkeley 52" is not one of the easy objects. At a magnification of 210x only a very faint, roundish patch of light can be seen,
which is only well visible with indirect vision. The cluster appears homogeneous, single stars are not visible.
