Abell 2079 - Galaxy Cluster
The star "beta CrB" is 3.6mag bright and has a white color due to its spectral class F0. Its distance is just 110 light-years.
Only 14' (arcminutes) south of it you can find Abell 2079, a galaxy cluster which is almost 900 million light-years away - 8 million times more
distant than "beta CrB". AGC 2079 also belongs to the "Corona Borealis Supercluster" - one of the most massive galaxy clusters in the northern
firmament.
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Finding the galaxy cluster is of course very easy. At a low magnification of 120x "beta CrB" is a true beacon in my 20 inch telescope and its
white light illuminates the whole field of view. If you know where to look, even at this magnification you can see the brightest galaxy of Abell
2079 as a very faint, diffuse patch of light. It's something special to have two such different objects together in the field of view.
To see the many other galaxies, I went up with the magnification. At 370x, I was able to keep the bright star just outside the eyepiece and
concentrate on finding the many small, glowing patches of light. A total of 14 galaxies were visible, including a nice chain of three near the
center of the galaxy cluster.
Overall, a very pleasant and interesting observation.
